Wrongly Convicted Database

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Bill Wilson

Years Imprisoned:	5
Charge:	First Degree Murder
Sentence:	Life Imprisonment
Year Convicted:	1914
Year Cleared:	1918
Location of Trial:	Alabama
Result:	Pardoned
Summary of Case:	Wrongly convicted in December 1915 of the first-degree murder of his wife and 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.
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
Was Perpetrator Found?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
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.
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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.
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Information Source 3:	The Innocents, Edward Radin, 1964, p. 240.
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Ethnicity/Skin:	White
Book About Case:
Book Information:
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Bill Wilson

Years Imprisoned:

5

Charge:

First Degree Murder

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment

Year Convicted:

1914

Year Cleared:

1918

Location of Trial:

Alabama

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

Was Perpetrator Found?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

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:

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Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Ethnicity/Skin:

White

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case:

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