i can t imagine that would have happened in a case like this. i can t imagine having any case but certainly this case. it didn t reach to the white house. smith did write a dissenting opinion. he said the fiber evidence fell short of scientific certainty and the prosecution should not have been allowed to use the so-called pattern evidence on ten other murders. i said only similarity in the crimes in this case is the fact that all of them were dead. smith was denounced on the floor of the georgia legislature. i was an n-lover. you know what n stands for. mary welcome agreed. when justice smith wrote the defense attorneys were ineffective. we were rendered ineffective. we were rendered incompetent because of the lack of funds, the lack of time and the lack of resources, absolutely. things did go wrong in the trial that should not have. an ambulance driver suggested an explosive motive for wayne
when we met they pitched a royal fit. they were not going to overturn the conviction, the five of them wasn t. in the end, all the justices except smith agreed to uphold the conviction. wayne williams said the court was bullied into making its u-turn. i think the pressure came from as high as the white house. and we ll leave it at that. not so, said george smith, now retired from the court but still practicing law in his 90s. i can t imagine that would have happened in a case like this. i can t imagine having any case but certainly this case. it didn t reach to the white house. smith did write a dissenting opinion. he said the fiber evidence fell short of scientific certainty and the prosecution should not have been allowed to use the so-called pattern evidence on
that s what he did find originally. but the five other justices resisted. when we met they pitched a royal fit. they were not going to overturn the conviction, the five of them wasn t. in the end, all the justices except smith agreed to uphold the conviction. wayne williams said the court was bullied into making its u-turn. i think the pressure came from as high as the white house. and we ll leave it at that. not so, said george smith, now retired from the court but still practicing law in his 90s. i can t imagine that would have happened in a case like this. i can t imagine having any case but certainly this case. it didn t reach to the white house. smith did write a dissenting opinion. he said the fiber evidence fell short of scientific certainty and the prosecution should not have been allowed to use the so-called pattern evidence on
this is the first time wayne williams has talked on tv in at least a decade. why do you think you were convicted? fear. what do you mean? atlanta, at the time, was in a panic. they wanted any suspect that they could find. and let s just be honest. it had to be a black person, because if it had been a white suspect, atlanta probably would have gone up in flames. it came very close to that. do you think you ll ever be free? no doubt it s not a matter of if to me. it s a matter of when. some 30 years after wayne williams trial and conviction, there is still debate and some doubt. this time, you can be the judge and the jury. we ll lay out the evidence on both sides and you ll hear from wayne williams at length. then we ll invite you to reach your own verdict, guilty, innocent, or a third choice, not proven. the first clue was found on a dead boy s tennis shoes. the victim was eric middlebrooks. his body left here in a rainy alley. a foster child who rode his bic
atlanta georgia. in all, more than two dozen victims. most of them strangled. by may, 1981, the police and f.b.i. were hiding in the brush beside and below theiver bridges. this was toe be the last niekt. almost the last hour. i heard the splash. reporter: bob campbell, a police recruit, jumped to his feet. i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering water. he looked up at the bridge. and i saw brake lights of a car. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. reporter: campbell radioed the other team members up above him. i asked did a car stop on the bridge. i couldn t believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn t see it. reporter: then, a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. he just said the car is pulling in the parking lot. they re turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge. reporter: this is that white station wagon. police followed i