Former Louisiana Death-Row Prisoner Released on Plea Agreement, Amid Evidence of Innocence, Misconduct

More than twen­ty years after being con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for a mur­der he has long said he did not com­mit, Corey Williams (pic­tured, cen­ter, with his defense team) walked free from prison in Louisiana on May 22, 2018. The deal was bit­ter­sweet for Williams, for despite the evi­dence of inno­cence, he had to agree to plead guilty to less­er charges of manslaugh­ter and obstruc­tion of jus­tice to obtain his freedom. 

In a state­ment released to the media, Amir Ali (pic­tured, left), Williams’ lead coun­sel in his U.S. Supreme Court pro­ceed­ings, said: ​“Imagine your child leav­ing to hang out with friends, and then los­ing him or her for twen­ty years. No one can give Corey back the time that he wrong­ful­ly spent behind bars, away from his fam­i­ly and friends. Today, we ensure this tragedy ends here — Corey can final­ly go home.” 

Williams, who is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, was just six­teen years old when he was arrest­ed for the mur­der of a piz­za deliv­ery­man in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Police inter­ro­gat­ed him overnight, even­tu­al­ly lead­ing him to con­fess, despite know­ing that he was intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled and there­fore more sus­cep­ti­ble to confessing falsely. 

Williams’ attor­neys said, ​“His con­fes­sion was brief, devoid of cor­rob­o­rat­ing details. Having just assumed respon­si­bil­i­ty for a homi­cide, Corey told the offi­cers, ​‘I’m tired. I’m ready to go home and lay down.’ ” 

Witnesses report­ed see­ing sev­er­al old­er men rob the vic­tim. Fingerprints from one of those men were found on the mur­der weapon, and the vic­tim’s blood was found on the cloth­ing of anoth­er man. A third pos­si­ble sus­pect, Chris Moore, nick­named ​“Rapist,” was the only wit­ness who tes­ti­fied against Williams. 

Prosecutors with­held record­ings of wit­ness inter­views that sup­port­ed Williams’ inno­cence claims. Those record­ings showed that police sus­pect­ed Moore and the two oth­er men were try­ing to frame Williams. 

Williams was sen­tenced to death, but his death sen­tence was vacat­ed six years lat­er after the U.S. Supreme Court declared the use of the death penal­ty against peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty to be unconstitutional. 

Hugo Holland, who along with Dale Cox, is respon­si­ble for 75% of death sen­tences imposed in Louisiana from 2010 – 2015, pros­e­cut­ed Williams’ case. He was lat­er inves­ti­gat­ed for with­hold­ing evi­dence in a sep­a­rate case, and had to resign his post due to other misconduct. 

At the time the plea deal was made, Williams had an appeal pend­ing before the U.S. Supreme Court, seek­ing review of his case based upon the pros­e­cu­tion’s improp­er with­hold­ing of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence. Forty-four for­mer state and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors and Department of Justice offi­cials—includ­ing for­mer U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey — filed a brief in sup­port of Williams’ claim, urg­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to grant him a new tri­al. The plea deal ends the lit­i­ga­tion of that case. 

Ali said, ​“The District Attorney’s deci­sion not to defend the trag­ic deci­sions of his pre­de­ces­sors is com­mend­able. Corey’s release is vin­di­ca­tion that he was wrong­ful­ly tar­get­ed years ago by pros­e­cu­tors who had no regard for truth or justice.”

Because Williams pled guilty on relat­ed charges, he does not meet the cri­te­ria to be includ­ed on DPIC’s Innocence List.