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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
25 yrs to life imprisonment |
Years Imprisoned: |
16 |
Year Crime: |
1993 |
Year Convicted: |
1997 |
Year Cleared: |
2016 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
California |
County or Region of Crime: |
San Bernardino |
City of Crime: |
Hesperia |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"William Richards was wrongly convicted in July 1997 of murdering his wife on August 10, 1993 in San Bernardino County, California. Bill Richards conviction was after he had two trials end in hung juries. The prosecution's case was largely circumstantial, based on the fact that Richards was the person who found her body after he got off work. During Richards' third tirial, a dental expert testified for the first time that a "bite mark" on her had was consistent with Richards' bite. The prosecution argued that expert testimony linked Richards to his wife's murder. After his conviction by a jury, Richards was sentenced to 25 yrs to life in prison. In 2001 the California Innocence Project became involved in his case and in the fall of 2007 DNA testing of skin scrappings of the killer recovered from underneath his wife's fingernails excluded Richards. Richards filed a state habeas petition for a new trial based on among other things, the DNA evidence and the prosecution's bite mark expert repudiated his trial testimony as mistaken -- since the mark on her hand may not have been a bite. An evidentiary hearing was held on January 26, 2009. On August 10, 2009 San Bernardino County Judge Brian McCarville overturned Richards conviction, saying that the new evidence pointed '“unerringly to innocence,” In 2012 the California Supreme Court by a 4 to 3 vote reversed Judge McCarville's ruling, in finding that the bite mark evidence likely wouldn't have changed the verdict. In response to the ruling the California legislature passed a law that was signed into law by the governor, that when expert prosecution trial testimony is later recanted, that the legal presumption is the trial testimony was "false evidence." Based on the new state law that legally established the dental experts trial testimony the jury relied on was "false evidence," on May 27, 2016 the California Supreme Court reversed its 2012 ruling by a 4 to 3 vote, and vacated Richards' conviction and ordered a new trial. The San Bernardino District Attorney's Office declined to retry Richards. On June 28, 2016 a motion by the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office to dismiss the charges against Bill Richards was granted." |
Conviction Caused By: |
"Prosecution's assumption he was guilty because he was the person who found his wife's body and an erroneous expert testimony that a "bite mark" on Richards' wife matched the bite of Richards." |
Innocence Proved By: |
"The San Bernardino District Attorney's Office declined to retry Richards. On June 28, 2016 a motion by the district attorney's office to dismiss the charges against Bill Richards was granted. Based on the new state law that legally established the dental experts trial testimony the jury relied on was "false evidence," on May 27, 2016 the California Supreme Court vacated Richards' conviction and ordered a new trial." |
Defendant Aided By: |
California Innocence Project |
Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
43 |
Age When Released: |
59 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Man set free after 23 years behind bars: Murder charges were officially dismissed against Bill Richards, convicted in the 1993 death of his wife, By Doug Sanders (Staff Writer), The Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA), June 28, 2016" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.pe.com/articles/richards-806964-california-project.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Murder conviction reversed in 23-year-old case that turned on a bite mark, By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-court-bite-mark-20160527-snap-story.html |
Information Source 3: |
"California Innocence Project Obtains Reversal of 12-Year-Old Murder Conviction, California Western News, August 10, 2009" |
Information Location 3: |
http://blogs.cwsl.edu/news/2009/08/10/california-innocence-project-obtains-reversal-of-12-year-old-murder-conviction/ |
Information Source 4: |
"DNA, False Evidence Confirm Inmate did not Murder His Wife, By Franki Fitterer, California Western News, November 26, 2007" |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.cwsl.edu/main/default.asp?nav=news.asp&body=news/Richards2007.asp |
Information Source 5: |
"Innocent Man’s Hope for Freedom Shattered By CA Supreme Court Decision, By Wendy Koen, CaliforniaInnocenceProject.org, December 4, 2012" |
Information Location 5: |
http://californiainnocenceproject.org/blog/2012/12/04/innocent-mans-hope-for-freedom-shattered-by-ca-supreme-court-decision/ |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org