Archie Williams

The Crime

Around mid-day on Dec. 9, 1982, a 31-year-old woman heard a knock on the side of her home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She recognized the man, who was Black, from an encounter about a month earlier. Although he said he was collecting clothes for the needy, the woman, A.E., became frightened.

A.E. attempted to slowly close the door as they talked, but the man pushed the door open and forced his way inside. A.E. tried to escape, but the man threw her to the floor and pinned her down. He later raped her twice. 

As the man was attempting to rape A.E. a third time, a friend of A.E., S.A., arrived to drop off A.E.’s daughter. S.A. honked her car horn. When A.E. did not come out, S.A. went to the side door. Seeing it open, S.A. walked in and called A.E.’s name.

The attacker heard S.A. and put his hand over A.E.’s mouth. He stabbed her in the abdomen and chest, left, and slammed the bedroom door closed.

By that time, S.A., along with her child and A.E.’s child, was coming up the stairs. At the top, they came face to face with the attacker, who then pulled S.A. into a bedroom and threw her against the wall. S.A. begged the attacker to leave and offered her car for his escape. She covered her eyes and told him that she would not look. 

About this time, a mail carrier delivering certified mail knocked on the front door. At that point, the attacker fled.

S.A. took A.E. to the hospital where she underwent surgery for treatment of her stab wounds and a rape kit was taken. 

The Investigation

A.E. told police she saw the attacker wipe the bedroom door with his shirt before he left. S.A. gave a description of the attacker, which was used to make a composite drawing. S.A. said that based on her height of 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and that she was wearing three-inch heels, she estimated the attacker to be a few inches taller than her.

On Dec. 15, 1982, while still in the hospital, A.E., who was 5 feet 7 inches tall, said her attacker was 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 11 inches tall. She also helped the police create a composite drawing. This sketch differed from the drawing made based on S.A.’s description. For example, A.E. said she saw a scar near the attacker’s clavicle.

Later that day, police showed A.E. eight photographic lineups, each consisting of six pictures of Black men. She did not identify anyone. The next day, Dec. 16, police showed A.E. three more photographic lineups. Again, she did not identify anyone.

On Jan. 3, 1983, no longer in the hospital, police showed A.E. six more photographic lineups, each containing six photographs. At this session, she said there was a person in one of the lineups that strongly resembled her attacker. She did not make a positive identification, but asked to see side views of the suspects.

Another lineup was composed using side views. She pointed to a photograph of 22-year-old Archie Williams — the only person whose photograph also had been in the earlier lineup — and suggested police “look for someone who looked like him.” A.E. did not positively identify Mr. Williams because she said his hair was different.

But the next day, Jan. 4, 1983, police showed A.E. another photographic lineup. This one showed Mr. Williams with a different hairstyle and she positively identified him as her attacker. 

Police arrested Mr. Williams that night. The following day, Jan. 5, 1983, he was placed in a live lineup. A.E. again positively identified him — the fourth time she had viewed a lineup containing Mr. Williams — a practice that would years later be condemned as suggestive.

S.A. also viewed the Jan. 5 live lineup. She identified someone else — not Mr. Williams — as the attacker, although she later testified she actually wanted to make two choices, but police told her she could only pick one.

The Trial

On April 18, 1983, Mr. Williams went to trial in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish on charges of attempted murder, aggravated rape, and aggravated burglary.

A.E. testified and identified Mr. Williams. She also identified a scar on Mr. Williams’ arm as the scar she previously saw on the attacker’s shoulder. A.E. said she had seen Mr. Williams about a month earlier when he came to her door looking for the “Mr. Williams” family.

S.A. also identified Mr. Williams in court but conceded that when she had viewed the lineup, she was not absolutely certain about her identification. 

She also testified that she had a first and second choice. Although she felt reasonably certain about her selection of Mr. Williams, she added she was only about 70 percent sure.

A serologist from the Louisiana State Police crime lab testified that he could not absolutely say that the seminal fluid detected in the rape kit was from Mr. Williams. He did say his tests did not exclude the possibility that Mr. Williams was the attacker.

Police testified that fingerprints were found in the bedroom that did not belong to Mr. Williams, A.E., or A.E.’s husband.

A police officer testified that Mr. Williams became a suspect after a confidential informant told detectives that Mr. Williams resembled the composite sketch created from A.E.’s description.

Mr. Williams was 5 feet, 4 inches tall — several inches shorter than the descriptions given by A.E. and S.A. — and testified he was home asleep at the time of the crime. His mother testified she saw him asleep in her North Baton Rouge apartment at 11:30 a.m., the approximate time of the offense. Mr. Williams’ sister and another friend, Albert Sterling, both testified that Mr. Williams was sleeping on the couch earlier that morning.

On April 21, 1983, the jury convicted Mr. Williams of attempted murder, aggravated rape, and aggravated battery. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 1984, the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal upheld his convictions. The court rejected the defense argument that S.E.’s identification was not reliable. 

The Exoneration

In 1995, in response to a letter from Mr. Williams, the Innocence Project began re-examining his case, and in 1996, it filed a motion for DNA testing. When the prosecution opposed the motion, it was denied. The Innocence Project appealed, and in 2007, an appeals court ordered the testing be done. However, the tests only identified the DNA of A.E.’s husband.

Meanwhile, starting in 1999, the Innocence Project began requesting that the prosecution submit the unmatched fingerprints from A.E.’s bedroom to the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). However, there was no law for such a search, and the prosecution refused to do so.

Innocence Project attorneys Barry Scheck and Vanessa Potkin were subsequently joined by Innocence Project New Orleans attorney Emily Maw. They continued to fight to submit the fingerprints to IAFIS. Two fingerprint examiners had examined the fingerprints for the defense team and determined that nine were suitable for comparison. The prosecution continued to oppose the request, arguing it was procedurally barred.

However, in 2009 — without informing Mr. Williams’ legal team — the prosecution did submit the prints to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab for comparison. No identification was made.

In 2014, IAFIS was replaced by Next Generation Identification (NGI), a more powerful and precise system for comparing fingerprints.

On March 14, 2019, on the order of 19th Judicial District Commissioner Kinasiyumki Kimble, the prosecution agreed to submit the prints to NGI. This search produced a list of possibilities for comparison, including Stephen Forbes, who had been convicted of committing sexual assaults in the same neighborhood where A.E. was attacked. Fingerprint examiners from the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory and the independent firm of Ron Smith & Associates agreed Mr. Forbes was the source of some of the nine fingerprints.

Records showed that in 1986, three years after A.E. was attacked, Mr. Forbes, who suffered from mental illness, had been arrested when he broke into a home less than two miles from A.E.’s home and attempted to sexually assault a woman there. After his arrest, Forbes confessed to four other rapes — two in 1985 and two in 1986. Ultimately, he pled guilty and was sentenced to prison. Mr. Forbes died there in 1996. He had never been questioned about the attack of A.E.

On March 21, 2019, the prosecution joined Mr. Williams’ attorneys in requesting his convictions be vacated. The motion was granted, the charges were dismissed and Mr. Williams was released — 36 years after his arrest.

In March 2020, Mr. Williams filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages for his wrongful conviction. He subsequently was awarded $330,000 in compensation by the state of Louisiana.