Dennis Williams

1 Pages 305 Words

Dennis Williams was convicted in Illinois and sentenced to die in 1979. A young woman and her fiance had been abducted, the young woman raped, and both murdered in an abandoned house. Williams and his friends and codefendants - Kenneth Adams and Willie Range - were residents of the neighborhood where the couple was found and were seen on the street the night of the crime. Along with Verneal Jimerson, Williams, Adams, and Rainge were dubbed the Ford Heights Four.

The state's chief witness in the case claimed to have been at the scene of the crime with the four men. After her testimony secured indictements of all four men, she recanted and the charges against Jimerson were dropped. Williams, Rainge, and Adams, however, were placed near the scene that night and were convicted. Adams received a seventy-five year sentence, Rainge a life sentence, and Williams was sent to death row.

Williams won a new trial in 1985. The star witness, who had been convicted as an accomplice and for perjury after her recantation, reverted to her original story and testified against Williams to gain her own release from prison. The charges against Jimerson were also refiled and both men were convicted and sentenced to death.

A group of journalism students took up the Ford Heights Four case in 1996. They found a witness who had tipped police to the identity of the real killers shortly after the crime. The police never investigated the tip. The investigating team also found two of the three men that were responsible for the crime, who eventually confessed. The third was deceased. DNA testing corroborated the confessions. Williams, cleared through DNA and the investigation of persistent Northwestern students, was released in 1996, having spent a total of eighteen years in prison and death row. See also: Kenneth Adams, Willie Rainge, Verneal Jimerson....