Wu-Tang Clan Studio Worker Who Spent 23 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn’t Commit To Receive $7 Million Settlement

May 24, 2022

It is inconceivable that a person can be sentenced to prison without any physical evidence tying them to a crime. How many people (and disproportionately Black people) have to spend years and even decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit before people involved in our justice system realize they need more than faulty witness testimony and a (racist) hunch to convict someone who is truly guilty?

How much settlement money do taxpayers need to be burdened with before legal officials come to glory on the fact that changes need to be made to the process in which a person goes from suspect to convict?

Last year, 51-year-old Grant Williams was exonerated in the 1996 shooting of Shdell Lewis outside a Staten Island public housing complex, according to the Associated Press. Grant had spent 23 years in prison for the crime before he was paroled in 2019. Then last July he was cleared of all charges and now, NYC has agreed to pay him $7 million for his pain and suffering.

Grant just handed to be a studio worker for one of the most legendary rap groups in Hip Hop history. Here’s how he ended up in prison for a killing he wasn’t responsible for, as reported by AP:

First of all, finding Wu-Tang apparel in Staten Island is like finding someone in a Spiderman t-shirt during a Marvel movie premiere. Secondly, why wasn’t the cap tested for DNA considering the fact that there was no additional evidence outside of the testimony of a cop and another witness who gave descriptions that didn’t even match Williams? Lastly, WHEN WILL THE JUSTICE SYSTEM STOP TAKING A COP’S WORD AT FACE VALUE?

Anyway, William—who also won a $5million settlement in a separate claim, according to his attorney, Irving Cohen—is not only free, but he’s apparently being reasonably well-compensated for years of his life that was stolen from him, not that a price can really be put on an individual’s freedom.

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