A Philadelphia man who was cleared of wrongdoing for several murder convictions after spending 25 years on death row was fatally shot while attending a funeral.
Christopher Williams, 62, was shot in the head at around 2:20 p.m. on Friday when he stepped out of a vehicle at Mount Peace Cemetery in North Philadelphia, according to police via the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was transported to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Williams had spent nearly 30 years in jail but was released in February 2021 after he was cleared of wrongdoing for all four murders he was convicted of.
Chris Williams spent decades on Pennsylvania death row. When he was exonerated of 4 murders, he came home holding his own signed execution warrants. He knew he'd defied the odds just by surviving. He was fatally shot last week, at a funeral.https://t.co/e6A0NDbOvR
— Samantha Melamed (@samanthamelamed) December 20, 2022
Williams was accused of two murder cases — the triple killing of three drug dealers, and the was the homicide of Michael Haynesworth — that both occurred in 1989.
In 1992, Williams and co-defendant Troy Coulston were convicted of the Haynesworth homicide. Williams and Coulston were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
One year later, Williams was again convicted, this time with codefendant Theophalis Wilson, for the triple killings. While Wilson was sentenced to life in prison, Williams received the death penalty.
Several years later, it was revealed that Williams and Wilson were victims of false and contradictory testimony evidence in the triple murder trial after one man recanted his initial testimony. New evidence emerged that contradicted the two men who initially testified.
Furthermore, Philadelphia prosecutors discovered investigators withheld evidence during the Haynesworth trial and also uncovered evidence that the state pressured two men to testify against Williams and Coulston.
According to NBC 10 Philadelphia:
Based on the new evidence, Williams was exonerated of his triple homicide conviction in December 2019 while Wilson was exonerated in January 2020.
Despite this however, Williams remained in prison on the Haynesworth conviction. The CIU then revisited that case and found that the testimony against Williams was inconsistent with the available physical evidence.
Following a recommendation from the CIU, Williams was exonerated a second time on February 9, 2021, and finally free from prison after 29 years.
Coulston was also exonerated before Williams.
While Pennsylvania is one of few states that does not offer monetary compensation to wrongly convicted individuals, the city of Philadelphia has paid out around $10 million apiece to those exonerated who served more than 25 years in prison, like Wilson, the Inquirer reported.
After being released from prison, Williams worked as a carpenter and made up for lost time reconnecting with family. He also spent time with individuals he met in prison, visiting often, and would also advocate for those he believed were wrongly convicted.
Williams is survived by his wife, five children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
No arrests have been made, and a weapon has not been recovered. The investigation is ongoing.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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