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ANGOLA, La. (AP) — A Louisiana man is free after spending 20 years in prison for a killing his attorneys say he didn't commit.
"Moments ago, I had the honor of walking Corey Williams out of prison," attorney Amir Ali said in a tweet Tuesday morning. "He spent the last 20 years there, after being wrongfully convicted as a 16 year old child."
Attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding "staggering" evidence of Williams' innocence in the January 1998 shooting death of pizza deliveryman Jarvis Griffin.
Williams pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter and obstruction of justice under a plea agreement with Caddo Parish prosecutors.
State District Court Judge Katherine Dorroh vacated his murder conviction and sentenced him to 20 years for manslaughter with credit for the time he has served, John Andrew Prime, spokesman for Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart Sr., said in a news release emailed Tuesday.
He said the judge suspended a seven-year sentence for obstructing justice, putting Williams on supervised probation for three years.
The deal came weeks after Williams' attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. A group of 44 former prosecutors and Justice Department officials, including former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, signed a brief in support of a petition by Williams' lawyers.
The plea "puts an end to Corey Williams' efforts to get the United States Supreme Court to reverse his conviction," Prime wrote.
Williams was an intellectually disabled 16-year-old when police arrested him. His lawyers say that before the shooting, Williams was hospitalized for extreme lead poisoning, still sucked his thumb and frequently urinated on himself. A district court judge overturned Williams' death sentence in 2004 because of his disabilities.
Williams' lawyers said there wasn't any physical evidence linking him to the killing.
Witnesses saw several older men steal money and pizza from Griffin and saw Williams running from the house alone with nothing in his hands after the shooting, according to his lawyers. One of the older men, Chris Moore, was the only witness who identified Williams as the shooter.
Fingerprints found on the murder weapon belonged to one of the other older men, and the victim's blood was found on clothing worn by a third older man, according to Williams' lawyers.
Police officers found Williams hiding under a sheet on a couch at his grandmother's house. He initially denied killing Griffin but changed his story after police questioned him through the night.
"His confession was brief, devoid of corroborating details," his lawyers wrote in their March 2 petition to the Supreme Court. "Having just assumed responsibility for a homicide, Corey told the officers, 'I'm tired. I'm ready to go home and lay down.'"
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