Ghostface Killah applauds Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Grant Williams’ exoneration after 23 years in jail

Wu-Tang Clan‘s Ghostface Killah has handed touch upon Grant Willams’ exoneration, after the group’s affiliate served 23 years in jail.

A Staten Island jury convicted Williams in 1997 for the homicide of Shdell Lewis the earlier yr.

Williams, then 25 years previous, had been recognized because the assailant who wore a black jacket and Wu-Tang Clan hat, which prosecutors positioned particular emphasis on, given he had been employed on the group’s recording studio. He was sentenced to life in jail, serving 23 years earlier than his conviction was overturned on Thursday July 22.

Ghostface Killah – a detailed good friend of Williams – stated the choice to overturn the conviction felt “like a ton of bricks being lifted”, per Staten Island Advance.

“I missed him. When he left, a part of me left.”

As reported by The New York Times, following a evaluate by Staten Island District Lawyer Michael E. McMahon’s Conviction Integrity Evaluation Unit, a number of witnesses – who had not beforehand testified at Williams’ trial – had been capable of present new data in assist of Williams’ innocence.

One witness, a detailed good friend of Lewis and acquaintance of Williams, had been out strolling with Lewis the evening of his homicide, and informed police that Williams was not the shooter. One other witness stated he was with Williams in one other location on the time of the taking pictures.

McMahon said: “Given the overwhelming quantity of exculpatory proof introduced for the primary time on this evaluate, in addition to a totality of the investigative circumstances on this case, which in a number of situations defy what we now settle for as finest practices, we now imagine Mr. Williams to really be harmless and conclude that our justice system failed him.”