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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
"Murder, Rape and Robbery" |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
29 |
Year Crime: |
1986 |
Year Convicted: |
1987 |
Year Cleared: |
2015 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Georgia |
County or Region of Crime: |
Wayne |
City of Crime: |
Jesup |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated (Not released due to other charges.) |
Summary of Case: |
"William Lawrence Lee Jr (aka Larry Lee) was wrongly convicted on November 24, 1987 of capital murder, armed robbery, burglary and use of a weapon in commission of a felony in the death of three members of a family in Wayne County, Georgia on April 26, 1986. In March 1988 William Lee was sentenced to death. Lee's conviction was affirmed by the Georgia Supreme Court on December 1, 1988, and in 1989 Lee filed a timely post-conviction writ of habeas corpus. After Lee's petition was denied in 1994 he appealed, and the trial court's ruling was reversed, with his petition remanded for an evidentiary hearing. Lee's petition was denied in 1999. Lee's lawyers were granted a motion by the Georgia Supreme Court to review the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's files in his case. Based on the information in the files Lee filed a petition for a new trial. An evidentiary hearing was held in 2006, and Superior Court Judge Gary McCorvey granted Lee's petition and ordered a new trial based on the prosecutions presentation of false evidence and concealment of exculpatory evidence, and ineffective assistance of counsel by Lee's trial lawyer. Legal manuevering by both the prosecution and Lee's lawyers continued for seven years, until June 2015, when a judge granted a motion by the Wayne County DA's Office to dismiss the charges against Lee in the interests of justice, because the DA lacked sufficient evidence to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a retrial. Lee remained in prison serving a life sentence for his conviction of an unrelated murder committed on June 17, 1986 in Glynn County." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
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Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
36 |
Age When Released: |
65 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Convicted killer in Wayne County slayings could go free, By Terry Dickson (Staff), The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.), June 22, 2015" |
Information Location 1: |
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2015-06-22/story/convicted-killer-wayne-county-slayings-could-go-free |
Information Source 2: |
"Lee v. State, 374 SE 2d 199, 258 Ga. 762 (Ga. Supreme Court, 12-1-1988 and reconsideration denied 12-14-1988) (Affirming convictions on direct appeal)" |
Information Location 2: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=18386040778869072531&q=lee+murder+374+SE2d+199&hl=en&as_sdt=4,11" |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org