Correction, 8/28/2014, 6 p.m. EDT: An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that all of the defendants asserted qualified immunity; that Williams’ state case had survived a motion to dismiss; and that a Covington client who was wrongfully convicted of aggravated rape obtained damages instead of a settlement. The story has been revised to correct these errors.
Benjamin Haley’s pro bono client Michael Williams served approximately 15 years in a Louisiana prison for a murder, the stabbing death of a young woman, that he didn’t commit. He was freed after his mother happened to overhear a conversation in a grocery store indicating that a witness against Williams had lied, and after Innocence Project New Orleans took up Williams’ case. Now Covington & Burling’s Haley is representing Williams in a fight for compensation for his wrongful conviction.
