Case of Louisiana's Corey Williams to be focus of latest 'Death Row Stories' episode

In January 1998, Corey Williams was in his neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, when a pizza delivery driver was fatally shot. Williams—a black 16-year-old with a severe intellectual disability—ran home after he learned of the shooting. When police located Williams and brought him in for questioning, he was interrogated for 12 hours before he ultimately confessed to the murder.

In October 2000, Williams was convicted and sentenced to death, even though no physical evidence tied Williams to the crime and he insisted his confession was false. He was later resentenced to life in prison after a judge ruled that Williams was intellectually disabled and thus not qualified for the death penalty.

In May 2018, the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office offered to release Williams in exchange for a manslaughter plea. Believing this was the best possible outcome for Williams, his attorneys agreed to the deal. Although accepting the plea ensured Williams’ freedom, it also guaranteed that Williams would suffer the collateral consequences of having a murder conviction on his record, namely, Williams would not be eligible to receive compensation for the 20 years he wrongly spent in prison. - The Innocence Project

Former Louisiana death row inmate Corey Williams will be the subject of "Death Row Stories" at 8 p.m. Sunday on HLN.

At 16, the intellectually disabled teenager became the youngest person on Louisiana's Death Row at Angola State Penitentiary after his conviction in the 1998 robbery and killing of Shreveport pizza delivery man Jarvis Griffin.

Griffin was shot and robbed outside his car after making a delivery to a house party Williams was attending.

Years later, "when a dogged team of defenders takes on his case, they learn that that not only is Williams' confession questionable — but that hidden police interviews with other eyewitnesses point to another suspect," an HLN release says.

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed Williams' conviction.

He was released from prison in May 2018.

"'Death Row Stories' explores the fallibility of the ultimate criminal penalty, capital punishment," the show synopsis states.

"Featuring stories told by current and former death row inmates, each hour-long episode seeks to unravel the truth behind a different capital murder case and pose tough questions about the U.S. capital punishment system."

Source: theadvocate.com, Judy Bergeron, May 10, 2020

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