Bernard Williams was 17 years old when he was convicted of murder for a 1996 killing. He spent 23 years in prison for a crime he claims he didn’t commit.
Now Williams is suing the city of Chicago and several of the Chicago police investigators who helped wrongfully convict him, according to a federal lawsuit filed this month.
The complaint alleges that detectives with the Chicago Police Department’s Area Four suppressed evidence, manipulated witnesses and fabricated things like a confession to seal Williams’ fate. It claims officers also beat and psychologically abused his co-defendant DeAngelo Johnson during interrogation, coercing Johnson to make a false confession that implicated Williams as his accomplice in the murder.