Man exonerated in rape after nearly 22 years in prison

By Errin Haines, Associated Press, January 23, 2007

ATLANTA - After proclaiming his innocence from prison for nearly 22 years, a man who has been cleared of a rape conviction by DNA evidence walked out of the Fulton County Jail as a free man Tuesday night.

Willie O. "Pete" Williams has spent nearly half his life in a Georgia prison. He was convicted of aggravated sodomy, kidnapping and rape when the victim identified him as the perpetrator in the April 1985 incident.

After being brought to Atlanta from a south Georgia prison, he was processed through the Fulton County Jail and emerged about 10 p.m. after being greeted with cheers by about 20 friends and family members, including his mother.

Wearing a red coat over a gray sweater-jacket, with his mother holding his arm, Williams appeared bewildered by an array of cameras and the other attention he was getting. He said he was looking forward to eating steak and potatoes and "just living the rest of my life."

But asked how it felt to be free, he was at a loss for words.

"I can't even explain," he said.

After that, he and family members left in a taxi van.

Williams was sentenced to 45 years. He would not have been eligible for parole until November 2021 at the earliest. Had he served his entire sentence, he would not have been released until May 13, 2030, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections Web site.

Hours before his release, Williams' mother, Judy Beglar, said she could hardly stand the wait and did not sleep Monday night.

"It's been almost 22 years," Beglar said, noting that she has not been able to hug her son in four or five years. "I really cannot put my feelings into works. I'm happy. I can't wait to see him, to hug him, to love on him."

Beglar said she always knew her son was innocent, and was no longer angry over his wrongful incarceration. She said she looks forward to his homecoming and the start of his new life.

"He doesn't have time to feel sorry for himself. We're going to be doing some of everything," she smiled.

Williams' younger brother, Greg Holloway, quietly admitted he is looking forward to fishing, watching football and basketball games and just doing "the simple stuff that brothers do."

"I didn't have that male role model in my life," Holloway said when asked about the effect of his brother's absence. "I can't explain how I feel."

Holloway was 13 years old when his brother went to prison. Williams' younger sister, Tracy, was 15, and said life without her oldest brother was difficult, but her family leaned on their faith and waited for this day.

"We prayed and relied on God and knew that God would put somebody in our path" to help them, Tracy said.

Williams wrote to the Georgia Innocence Project in July 2005, after the agency's executive director sent a letter to all Georgia inmates convicted of rape. The Georgia Innocence Project examines cases where DNA evidence is available to test and there is a compelling claim of innocence.

The Innocence Project has freed 192 wrongly convicted inmates nationwide since 1992. Williams becomes the sixth Georgia inmate freed.

The Georgia agency took up Williams' case last year, and 27-year-old Georgia State University College of Law student Cliff Williams - who Beglar said she now sees as a son - worked on his behalf.

Atlanta defense attorney Bruce Harvey, who also volunteered to work on the case for free, said the news was absolutely phenomenal.

"It's redemption for him, and a continuing indictment of a system that relies almost entirely, in these kinds of cases, on evidence that we now know is the least reliable type of evidence available: eyewitness identification," Harvey said in a Tuesday morning telephone interview about his client's impending release.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard on Monday ordered Williams' release after he was exonerated.

"We are convinced today Mr. Williams was not responsible for this," Howard said at a news conference.

Howard said he has started an investigation to find the actual rapist in the 1985 attack on a woman at an apartment complex parking lot in Sandy Springs.