Sacramento, Cal. — (KCRA) Richard Williams is finally a free man after spending 19 years behind bars. He walked out of the Sacramento County jail Tuesday night after being acquitted of murder charges.
“It felt good, I felt liberated that I could go any direction I wanted to,” Williams said.
Williams was 18 years old when he began his prison sentence. He was convicted of murder in 1998 after a man was killed at a south Sacramento intersection two years earlier.
Three trials later, Williams was acquitted Monday. He gave his own closing argument in his third and final trial — made possible after a U.S. District court judge said the original trial was constitutionally flawed because an African-American woman was kept off the jury because of her race.
“I just poured my heart out to the jury and told them the truth,” Williams said. “And, they heard it.”
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