An article published by the Innocence Staff titled “Herman Williams Is Exonerated After Nearly Three Decades of Wrongful Conviction”, showed the world Herman William’s conviction was vacated and was released after nearly 29 years in prison. Herman Williams is now 58 years old and a decorated member of the United States Navy. Mr.Williams was sentenced to a crime he did not commit according to the new DNA evidence found by the Innonence Project. Mr.Williams was convicted based on “scientifically unsupported forensic pathology testimoney regarding the victim’s time of death, that the prosecution hid favorable evidence at his original trial, and that the detective who claimed Mr.Williams confessed is now known to have engaged in a pattern of misconduct, including securing false confessions and claiming suspets made admissions of guilt in other innocence cases.” Here is proof showing Mr.Williams was not associated with the crime “DNA testing completed in 2021 and performed on biological material collected from under Ms. Williams’ fingernails during the autopsy — which was significant because she had clearly struggled with her attacker — revealed male DNA that does not belong to Mr. Williams. Further DNA testing also demonstrated that small amounts of blood from Mr. Williams’ truck — which the State used to link to Ms. Williams through now-outdated blood typing — does not, in fact, belong to her. ” This shows how even with all the technology we posses there will always be error. “The misapplication of forensic science has contributed to 52% of wrongful convictions in Innocence Project cases. False or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.” This is why Herman Williams was released from prison after nearly three decades in prison.

The organization that wrote this article is the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project is nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The primary audience the Innonence Project seeks to attract is people are who currently serving time for a crime they did not commit. Other audiences may be workers in the criminal justice system such as judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and law enforcement. The reason the Innocence Project posted this article at this particular time is because Herman William’s conviction was overturned that same day. This article is shown on their very own website “innocenceproject.org.” Here, the organization is trying to inform people about the defects in the criminal justice system.

Key Quotes
– This horrific crime not only robbed two children of their mother, but because of a flawed investigation, lies from police and prosecutors, and withheld evidence, they also had their father taken from them,” said Lauren Kaeseberg, Mr. Williams’ attorney at the Illinois Innocence Project
– The misapplication of forensic science has contributed to 52% of wrongful convictions in Innocence Project cases. False or misleading forensic evidence was a contributing factor in 24% of all wrongful convictions nationally, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

– The National Registry of Exonerations conducted a study on the role of government misconduct in the nation’s first 2,400 exoneration cases and found that police officers committed misconduct in 35% of cases.

“Herman Williams Is Exonerated After Nearly Three Decades of Wrongful Conviction.” The Innocence Project, The Innocence Project, 6 Sept. 2022, https://innocenceproject.org/herman-williams-is-exonerated-after-nearly-three-decades-of-wrongful-conviction/.