House approves compensation for man wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years

A claim bill for Clifford Williams, former Florida death row inmate, is on the way to the Governor.

A bill that seeking relief for a man wrongfully incarcerated for decades passed the House unanimously Tuesday and now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature.

SB 28/HB 6507, from Sen. Audrey Gibson and Rep. Kim Daniels, seeks to compensate Jacksonville’s Clifford Williams, locked up for 43 years for a crime he did not commit, with $2.15 million.

The House took up the Senate version of the bill.

Rep. James Bush noted that he and Williams’ daughter were “in ministry together for some time” in the Miami area.

“This is a historic day. We know your father was incarcerated for 43 years but we’re going to pick up the pieces and move on,” Bush said.

Daniels described the “heart-wrenching hours” behind bars, “left in a dark hole on Death Row.”

The appropriation will offer what Daniels calls “a small token of compensation” 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, but 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 last month 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.