Syndication: The Indianapolis Star
New York (77WABC) – A Staten Island man who spent 23 years in prison was finally cleared of his charges Thursday after his murder conviction was thrown out due to new evidence.
Grant Williams was charged in the April 5, 1996, shooting death of Shdell Lewis outside a Staten Island housing project and was found guilty by a jury in November 1997. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Williams’ fate was sealed due only to the testimony of one witness and one NYPD officer. An investigation by the Staten Island District Attorney’s office uncovered more evidence about the case, including a number of credible witnesses who gave testimony to the innocence of Williams, all who were ignored in the original trial.
It was also shown that identification procedures used by police at the time did not meet with the best practices for ensuring fair and impartial justice.
(1/2) Today is Grant Williams’ day. Wrongfully convicted 20+ years ago, today he leaves court an innocent man.
But today is also a historic day for Staten Island, as it marks the first time our Conviction Integrity Review Unit has overturned a conviction pic.twitter.com/iQymbdqTpn
— Michael E. McMahon (@StatenIslandDA) July 22, 2021
“A reinvestigation of this case by my office’s Conviction Integrity Review Unit uncovered new evidence showing Mr. Grant Williams could not have committed the murder a Staten Island jury convicted him of carrying out in 1997,” Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon said in a statement. “Given the overwhelming amount of exculpatory evidence presented for the first time in this review, as well as a totality of the investigative circumstances in this case, which in several instances defy what we now accept as best practices, we now believe Mr. Williams to actually be innocent and conclude that our justice system failed him. Accordingly, we are consenting to the vacating of his conviction and the dismissal of the case.”
Williams, who is now 50, was paroled in 2019.
