Bill Wilson

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Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Years Imprisoned:	4.92
Year Crime:	1912
Year Convicted:	1914
Year Cleared:	1918
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Alabama
County or Region of Crime:	Blount
City of Crime:	Oneonta
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Bill Wilson was wrongly convicted in December 1915 of the first-degree murder of his former wife Jenny and their child in 1912 based on bones that were found. He was convicted even though six witnesses, including her sister, testified at his trial to seeing the two alleged victims alive after they were allegedly murdered. Bill Wilson was sentenced to life. After Wilson's conviction a curator from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC examined the bones and determined they were aged bones from four different people. Bill Wilson's attorney eventually found the alleged victims alive and living in Indiana, and Wilson was pardoned by Alabama's governor in July 1918 after 5 years of wrongful imprisonment, including 17 months held without bail prior to his trial. In 1919 he was awarded $3,500 compensation by Alabama's legislature. However, a probate judge named as a trustee of Wilson's account stole most of the $3,500."
Conviction Caused By:	Erroneous identification of bones as those of his wife and child.
Innocence Proved By:	"Pardoned by Alabama's governor after the alleged "victims" were found alive and living in Indiana."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$3,500 (State of Alabama)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	White
Information Source 1:	"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992 p. 354-355."
Information Location 1:
Information Source 2:	"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 169."
Information Location 2:
Information Source 3:	"The Innocents, Edward Radin, 1964, p. 240."
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Bill Wilson

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Years Imprisoned:

4.92

Year Crime:

1912

Year Convicted:

1914

Year Cleared:

1918

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Alabama

County or Region of Crime:

Blount

City of Crime:

Oneonta

Result:

Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Erroneous identification of bones as those of his wife and child.

Innocence Proved By:

"Pardoned by Alabama's governor after the alleged "victims" were found alive and living in Indiana."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$3,500 (State of Alabama)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1992 p. 354-355."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

"“Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases,” Hugo Adam Bedau & Michael L. Radelet, Stanford Law Review, November, 1987, Vol. 40, p. 169."

Information Location 2:

Information Source 3:

"The Innocents, Edward Radin, 1964, p. 240."

Information Location 3:

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: