Innocent man shares his 20-year struggle behind bars

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Willie "Pete" Williams had no idea when he was pulled over by police that the criminal justice system was about to steal away half his life.

Willie "Pete" Williams, 45, spent half of his life behind bars for a 1985 rape he did not commit 22 years "I felt betrayed ... I felt like these people had taken my life," says WilliamsDNA evidence has directly exonerated 208 wrongly convicted people in U.S have also been set free.

Sitting in the flashing glow of Atlanta squad car lights along Georgia State Road 400, the 23-year-old part-time house painter didn't know police were looking for a rapist who had struck nearby three weeks earlier.
Police questioned -- and then arrested Williams, triggering a series of mistaken witness identifications that led to his unjust conviction for rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy.
It was 1985 and Williams was sentenced to serve 45 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. "I felt betrayed. ... I felt like these people had taken my life for something I didn't do. I felt like I was being treated unfairly. ... I felt very, very angry towards everybody," said Williams last week, a free man after nearly 22 years behind bars.
He said he spent many of those years stoking that anger by fighting guards and inmates, while his childhood friends were developing careers and raising families. Watch Williams offer more details about his prison nightmare »
Earlier this year, after DNA science proved his innocence, the 45-year-old with a graying mustache stood again before a judge -- who this time exonerated Williams. Watch Williams celebrate after a judge freed him »
Williams' troubling story provokes discomfort in a nation that prides itself on a justice system where the accused are innocent until proven guilty. So far, DNA evidence has directly exonerated 208 wrongly convicted people in the United States, according to the Innocence Project. It's unknown how many prisoners now locked up in American jails could be freed by new testing of DNA evidence.
A jury of Williams' peers convicted him in the April 5, 1985, rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy of a woman in Atlanta's Sandy Springs neighborhood.
The victim told police her attacker first approached her to ask if she could help him find someone named Paul. Then he produced a gun and forced her into her car, according to police. They then drove to a dead-end street where the assault occurred.
Because the science behind each person's unique DNA signature was new to police in 1985, the key evidence that sealed Williams' fate was the testimony of three eyewitnesses who mistakenly said they recognized him.
"Mistaken eyewitness identification has long been the single biggest factor in the conviction of innocents," said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project.
"That has got to be important to everybody, because if we can reform identification procedures, it will keep more innocent people out of jail and convict criminals who really commit the crimes."
A national nonprofit group, the Innocence Project has inspired creation of state and regional organizations including the Georgia Innocence Project, which exonerated Williams.
As a new prisoner Williams said he fought a painful struggle against the raw deal the world had dealt him. When board members denied him parole the first of three times Williams said, "they had to escort me to 'the hole' [solitary confinement]."
"I couldn't function out there around the other inmates," Williams said. "I was mad, I was bitter. I felt the whole world just gave me up."
It wasn't until 1997 -- more than a decade after he was locked away -- that Williams' own voice freed him from the grip of his anger. At Valdosta State Prison, a close friend named Charlie Brown helped him join a Christian choir -- leading him to accept Jesus.
"Singing was like being out here, in a sense. It freed me from all the things, from all the fights, from the officers who were cruel, prison, stabbings," said Williams, who especially embraced the hymn "Amazing Grace."
After singing got a hold of Williams, he said the hardest part of his heart started to dissolve.
"I didn't feel angry anymore -- or any hate."
Witness ID
Sequential double-blind lineups are standard in:
New Jersey
Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Northhampton, Massachusetts
Madison, Wisconsin
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Ramsey County, Minnesota
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Santa Clara County, California
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Source: Innocence Project
To prevent more tragedies like Williams', innocence projects in many states, including Georgia, have begun pressing lawmakers to adopt special witness ID procedures called sequential double-blind lineups. Such lineups are administrated by officials who don't know who the suspect is and present each member of a lineup one-by-one instead of simultaneously.
Witnesses who see several potential suspects simultaneously are more likely to choose a person who looks most like the perpetrator -- but who may not actually be the perpetrator, according to the Innocence Project. The group also cites research that says misidentification is reduced if the person overseeing the lineup is "blind" to which person in the lineup is the suspect.
Georgia's Legislature held hearings Monday in Atlanta to study the research and the proposed standards, which have been adopted by New Jersey and jurisdictions in Minnesota, California and elsewhere.
Louis M. Dekmar, vice chair of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies is skeptical of the research, but said the issue deserves further study.
"I don't believe the research is so compelling that we need to make swings and changes that don't bode well for criminal investigations and the criminal justice process," said Dekmar, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and chief of police for LaGrange, Georgia.
Dekmar argues investigators should be allowed to administer lineups to gauge reaction while they look at witness faces, to see if a witness is "stressed, weeping, nervous -- all those reactions that help detectives formulate whether this is a strong identification or a weak identification."
Williams' Case
April 5, 1985: Woman raped, kidnapped in Atlanta, Georgia
Williams arrested: April 28, 1985
Sentence: 45 years in prison
Freed: January 23, 2007
Exonerated by DNA evidence: February 13, 2007
February 10, 2007: DNA tests result in arrest and eventual conviction of Kenneth G. Wicker for the 1985 rape
Sources: Innocence Project, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Williams was convicted on the identification of three witnesses who first singled him out from a photo lineup, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
More than 20 years later, Georgia Innocence Project attorneys arranged to compare Williams' DNA with DNA evidence collected from the 1985 rape. It was not a match, proving that Williams was not the attacker and opening the door to his release.
Shortly after Williams' exoneration, DNA science again played a role in the case when a genetic match resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Kenneth G. Wicker for the crime that Williams had been wrongly convicted of. Years earlier Wicker had served four years in prison for another rape and two attempted sexual assaults, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
As Scheck's Innocence Project marks its 15th year, the 1995 O.J. Simpson defense attorney describes it as a movement for criminal justice as well as human rights.
"I think that it's going to be remembered for getting innocents out of jail, but also for changing the paradigm in the criminal justice system," said Scheck.
"There is a greater understanding now that sound scientific and critical research can go a long way toward proving injustice and prosecuting the guilty."
Sometimes an Innocence Project client is confirmed to be guilty by DNA evidence, but the group doesn't make the number of those cases available. Theoretically, If key DNA material in a case is properly preserved, there's no time limit on revisiting old cases, according to the Innocence Project.
Critics accuse the group of denying closure to communities and victims' families by giving new life to old cases. To that, project spokesman Eric Ferrero said, "Victims are not served by the wrong people being convicted."
Perhaps the most important victory for the project has been its role in sparing the lives of 15 people condemned to death. In 2000, 13 condemned prisoners were exonerated by a group of Northwestern University students affiliated with the Innocence Project.
Some of the innocent prisoners were freed through DNA testing, others were exonerated after new trials were ordered by appellate courts.Those spared lives prompted then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan to declare a state moratorium on all executions and later, a blanket clemency of all 167 death row prisoners.
The moratorium remains in effect while Illinois authorities consider proposed reforms to the system.
Back in Georgia, during the ten months since Williams' friends and family welcomed him home with hugs and kisses, he's been taking his time rejoining society, attending electronics classes and dealing with his top complaint: 21st century traffic.
Williams has found a home in a church congregation and plans to join its choir, holding on to the spiritual anchor he formed in prison.
Money is tight for Williams, and, according to the Innocence Project, only 45 percent of those exonerated by DNA evidence have been financially compensated. He expects some compensation from Georgia, although the state has no law guiding such cases.
Regaining his freedom has renewed Williams' belief in the power of prayer, but he said it has done little to repair his faith in the nation's justice system. He wonders how many other Americans are still suffering injustices like his own.
"When I see someone on television when they say, 'this is a suspect,' I have a difficult time believing that that actually is a suspect," Williams said.
"That's how I'm affected now."

I swear if one more person ask me about...

that damn interview with Palin, I am going to scream

Lil wayne in court again

Lil wayneAKA MR CARTER times 3 Appeared in count on 09/10/08 His lawyer Stacey Richman made a statement objecting to earlier statements made by Officer Diane Hornung of the NYPD during her testimony this week. Officer Hornung claims she noticed smoke coming from tour bus following concert on 07/22/07 and she could smell what’s known as the drug Marijuana, Weezy’s Lawyer pointed out that Officer Hornung was quite a distance away to witness all of that. “She wasn’t any where near where she said she was” he said. Richman, also brought up various court documents that showed the officer to be, in fact, blocks away from the scene where she was helping a fellow officer arrest rap artist Ja Rule and his entourage on gun charges. So clearly the OFFICER was no where around and makes her testimony not justifiable in either case. Before the case was brought to trial Officer Hornung stressed that it was the scent of marijuana that was probable cause for her as an officer to search the bus. Weezy will be back in court next week facing 3 ½ years in jail.

A distraction called Palin

Palin is a distraction And this election won't be won by comparing Biden to Palin; it won't be won by killer lines against Palin's qualifications. The best Obama can make use of is during the Republican Convention, and they can run ads about Romney and Huckabee and suchlike to demonstrate how McCain has gone on and selected a nonentity, someone who did not even campaign nationally, in the place of other candidates who had had the support of the Party. This is about the maximum mileage of the Palin story - unless of course there is real corruption, in which case McCain and the ticket are toast in any event.
No. The significance of the Palin selection is to be found elsewhere. It is that, first, the experience issue is not gone, forever, and done with. Not that Obama's experience is in any way comparable to Palin's, but that McCain has already defanged his own campaign of its most serious legitimate charge. And second, that, simply, this is a desperate attempt at shoring up a candidacy that is floundering; it is a gimmick; it is a joke and a hoax upon the nation. McCain chose her because he has no intention of winning - or, rather, no hope. It is already a concession speech: after all, if he is a true patriot, he can't be serious in wanting her his own heartbeat away from the Presidency. This is yet another frat-boy prank, another injection of humour into the campaign; this is the Paris Hilton ad taken to its logical extension.
As for the supporters of Hillary: well, I am not a woman, but if I were, I'd be, at a minimum, mildly insulted. Why? *Because this is how McCain thinks of Hillary.* To him, Hillary is no better than a one-term two-year Governor of a small state: all Hillary supporters want is not Hillary and her experience (in their minds) and her credentials; it is her reproductive organs - and if Hillary then some other woman, any other woman.
Whatever one might say about Mrs. Clinton, she is a formidable politician; she was the presumptive nominee for a long time, and came within several percentage points of being the nominee. She has travelled the country, campaigned long (too long) and hard (too hard); she's the one who got the 18 million cracks in the ceiling. And now McCain thinks that any woman anywhere in the country could claim the allegiance of these 18 million, just by virtue of being women? Nah, it does not work that way. And that should be the story to press forward.

Everyone is missing the point

Everyone is missing the point. Obama was saying that Palin is the lipstick and McCain is the pig - Palin is the newspaper and McCain is the fish. So infact he complimented Palin and insulted McCain. It is a very accurate analogy that clearly illustrates the trick republicans are trying to pull on the America people to get their pig elected. That pig being John McCain. But lipstick smears and wears off quickly. It needs to be re-applied, which is why McCain keeps Palin so close on the campaign trail. Without Palin to make McCain look good everyone will see him for what he really is. Also not enough attention is being paid to the fact that Palin is an unknown quantity who is turning out to be quite deceptive, vindictive and extreme and alot of her attraction to voters come down to her looks, compared to Obama and McCain. So even if the analogy is applied to her it is very accurate and highlights how her looks are bing used to manipulate voters. She looks good but she is a pig of a politician. The lip-stick on a pig analogy is also an accurate discription of McCains lies about being an agent of change and a maverick. All three interpretation of the lipstick/pig analogy clearly describes how the America people are being deceived by the McCain Palin ticket. A vote for Palin and McCain truly is a vote for lipstick on a pig, whichever way you look at it. After two weeks of republican hype and hoopla Obama has very accurately described the republican ticket in a way that everyone can easily understand.

George Carlin, died at 71

George Carlin, 71, the much-honored American stand-up comedian whose long career was distinguished by pointed social commentary that placed him on the cultural cutting edge, died last night in Santa Monica, Calif.

His death was reported by the Reuters news agency and on the Los Angeles Times Web site. He had long struggled with health problems and a heart condition dating to the 1970s.

Carlin was selected last week by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to receive this year's Mark Twain Prize, a lifetime achievement award presented to an outstanding comedian.

Over a career of half a century, Carlin placed himself in the forefront of comic commentators on the American scene. He was particularly known for an album that referred to what he described as the seven words that could not be used on television.

The playing of the album on a radio station led to a case that went to the Supreme Court, and the material was judged indecent but not obscene. The legal controversy brought about the enunciation of a rule permitting a ban on certain material when children are most likely to be in the audience.


The case was one of the highlights of a career that included TV and radio performances, including HBO specials and many comic albums.

The New York-born performer, who also was an Air Force veteran, once summed up his approach:

"I think it is the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

Carlin's entertainment career began in 1956 at a radio station in Shreveport, La. while he was in the service.

In the early 1960s, he began his one-man act, and his live appearances and the albums he recorded proved highly popular.

His wife Brenda, predeceased him. They had a daughter, Kelly. A second wife survives him.

he reason Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be bailed out.

The reason of the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed a helping hand.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from approved lenders and then sell them on to investors - rather than lending directly to borrowers
They guarantee or own about half of the $12 trillion US mortgage market. They are relied on by almost all US mortgage lenders. Banks look for funds to meet consumer demand for mortgages when mortgage lenders are linked with investors - they help to keep the supply of money widely available and at a lower cost.

FREDDIE MAC & FANNIE MAE are the two largest firms that buy mortgages from approved lenders and then sell them on to investors - rather than lending directly to borrowers
They have guaranted or own about half of the $12 trillion US mortgage market. They are relied on by almost all US mortgage lenders and are looked to for funds to meet consumer demand for mortgages.

The companies have been taken under government control because they, according to President Bush, pose "an unacceptable risk" to the economy.
It will cost the US taxpayer at least $200bn to rebuild their capital - and the cost could be a lot higher if the US housing market continues to plummet.
Here is a unique that you may did not know... Despite Fannie and Freddy guaranteeing or owning just under half of the entire US mortgage market, you cannot actually get a home loan from either firm.
But while they are invisible to the average borrower, the two firms are highly influential institutions and are key to the US housing market.
As one US Treasury official puts it, the two firms are "way too intertwined with everyone in the world" to fail. Because banks around the world are highly exposed to the two companies.
And, given the unstable state of markets across the world, it had become dangerous for doubts to persist about whether they were viable and would be able to keep up the payments on their massive liabilities, said the BBC's business editor Robert Peston.
The Accounting flaws of the housing market turmoil has caused the firms great damage, its problems appear to be partly be to do with the way it managed its accounts - which had the effect of overstating its capital resources and financial stability.
The New York Times reported that Freddie Mac had pushed losses it had already incurred into the fourth quarter of 2008 - meaning that it would not have to be revealed until next year.
Fannie Mae had done something similar, but to a lesser extent, the paper said, adding that neither firm had necessarily breached accounting rules.
Both firms had also factored in tax benefits on profits that they were yet to see - credits which are worthless until profits are actually made - something neither has managed in the past year.
It was investigations by the Federal authorities into these irregularities that helped prompt the government to act.
The guarantees given by the US government were no longer enough. Even as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had profited from the US housing boom.
As the value of US homes soared, the importance of these two institutions grew in allowing people to purchase property.
The two firms do not lend directly to homebuyers, instead buying mortgage debt from approved lenders such as banks, and then selling it on to investors.

Almost all US mortgage lenders, from huge financial institutions such as Citigroup to small, local banks, rely on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, looking to them for the funds they need to meet consumer demand for mortgages.
The two firms argue that they make home ownership more affordable, lowering the interest rates on the 30-year mortgages that they guarantee.
But their peculiar status has left them in a grey area between being government owned and private sector, with potential risks to the taxpayer should they need bailing out.

The rescue at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae contrast with the recent collapse of California-based IndyMac Bank - the second-largest financial institution to fail in US history, regulators say.
IndyMac had been struggling to raise funds and stay in business in one of the states worst hit by the US housing market slump.
Without similar close links to government it could not weather the storm, and went into administration.
But it is clear that Washington wants to keep Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae alive and kicking, not least so that they can play a key role in reinvigorating the housing market.
But there is a strong consensus that the price of not intervening would be far worse.