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 Williams through now-outdated blood typing — does not, in fact, belong to her.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.
- Who’s the author? What do we know about this person? This organization? How do we know that (figure it out from the language they use, from the creator of the website, from research and information from somewhere else)? What is their attitude toward the subject or the world in general? How do we figure that out? What is their authority for writing this?
The author is the Innocence Staff. There is no real organization, the article starts with a little background about Herman Williams, how he was wrongfully convicted, and how he was exonerated. The article uses formal language because of the serious topic. Their authority for writing this is to inform the world about the injustice that happens in our criminal justice system. - Who’s their audience? Who is the primary audience? What other audience besides a primary one might there be? What makes you say that? What audiences do you think the author is ignoring?
Their primary audience would have to be people who are currently serving time for a crime they did not commit. Other audiences might be workers in the criminal justice system, judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and law enforcement. - What’s the occasion? Why did the author create this text at this particular moment? What is the context? Where was it shown/published?
The author created this text at this particular moment because Herman Williams was recently released from prison recently. It is shown/published on their very own website innocenceproject.org. - What’s the purpose? What was the author trying to accomplish?
The author is trying to inform people about the defects in the criminal justice system. - What’s the genre? Why use it? What made this genre the best one to address their audience? What are the conventions of this genre – the things everybody expects to find? How does this author change some of those conventions? Why did they change them?
The genre is non fictional literacy. This genre made it the best one to address the audience because of the seriousness of the topic and the reality of it. - What is the tone? How can you tell the creator’s feelings by the words and phrases, or the visuals and audio, that were chosen
There is no negative tone in this article because the release of Herman Williams is a positive outcome. - Relevance: Does it help you answer your question?
Yes - Accuracy: Can you verify this information anywhere else? Is there evidence to support their position? Have they cited other authorities/experts?
I can verify this information elsewhere. Their is evidence to support their position. They have cited other sources such as the National Registry of Exonerations.
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