The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission believes a Winston-Salem man may have falsely confessed to a role in a homicide.
More than 30 years ago, Merritt Drayton Williams implicated himself in the death of 65-year-old retiree Blanche Bryson. The commission reviewed the case and determined there was “sufficient evidence of factual innocence to merit judicial review.” The Winston-Salem Journal legal affairs reporter Michael Hewlett shares his reporting with host Frank Stasio on this complex case and explores questions around why Winston-Salem police and Forsyth County prosecutors believed the inconsistent statements Williams gave at the onset of the case.
Next year, a three-judge panel will take up Williams’ case and determine if he should be exonerated in Bryson's death. Williams was also convicted in the 1983 death of Arthur Wilson, a case in which the commission determined there was not enough evidence of factual innocence to challenge his conviction.