A.G. Gancarski
A bill that seeks to right some of the wrongs for a man wrongfully incarcerated for decades continued Tuesday to move in the House and Senate.
HB 6507, from Jacksonville state Rep. Kim Daniels, seeks to compensate Jacksonville’s Clifford Williams, locked up for 43 years for a crime he did not commit, $2.15 million.
The measure cleared Appropriations Tuesday, with Chairman Travis Cummings setting the tone, calling it the “most important bill on the agenda today.”
Daniels, in remarks to the committee, noted “clear and convincing evidence” of Williams’ innocence, established in a number of forums.
In his remarks, Williams thanked God … both for his freedom and for being free of cancer.
Rep. Randy Fine said he couldn’t handle being locked up for one day, never mind 43 years, erroneously. He asserted that “if we do something like this as a state, for 43 years, $50,000 a year is an insult.”
Judiciary is ahead for the Daniels bill.
The Senate version, sponsored by Jacksonville’s Sen. Audrey Gibson, cleared the Appropriations Subcommittee on Civil and Criminal Justice Tuesday afternoon.
“This bill is about innocence … it’s about a man who is not a saint, but not a murderer either,” Gibson said.
Chairman Jeff Brandes lauded the bill as “the right thing to do.”
It will head to the full budget committee Thursday.
If the Legislature decides to pay up, it will offer some amelioration for a life derailed by a quick-to-convict local justice system that was still wrestling with Jim Crow philosophies.
In May 1976, Jeannette Williams was killed in the New Town neighborhood of Jacksonville. Ms. Williams’ domestic partner, Nina Marshall, identified Mr. Williams (no relation to the victim) as one of two men who shot her.
The purported motive was sordid and clear: Mr. Williams was 33 and dealt heroin. Marshall was a customer, and she claimed Mr. Williams fired shots over back rent.
Mr. Williams and his alleged conspirator were convicted on hearsay evidence, with no forensics coming into play, an apt illustration of Duval County justice during the Mayor Hans Tanzler era.
Two subsequent appeals were denied. Then Mr. Williams’ alleged co-conspirator, Hubert “Nate” Myers, read of Jacksonville’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
Myers appealed to State Attorney Melissa Nelson, and he and Williams became the first to be exonerated by the Conviction Integrity Unit.
However, despite that exoneration, previous felony convictions have disqualified the now-76 year old from relief.
Williams was excused from death row in 1980, though more than half his life would progress before he knew actual freedom.
However, he has some high-profile help now.
Holland and Knight is representing him pro bono, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers sponsoring this fight for economic justice.
In a corollary note, Nate Myers was approved earlier this week by the Attorney General’s office for his own compensation.
As Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union was first to report, the AG reversed position from a Jan. 23 veto of the court order, in which the contention was that Myers’ innocence wasn’t proven, despite judges ruling to that effect.
Ultimately, the AG’s office came to the conclusion that it could not veto a court order.
In a measure of confusion over the case, Sen. Gibson had to clarify to Sen. Darryl Rouson that Myers and Williams were two different people.
