Man on Death Row for 25 Years Shot Dead at Funeral After Being Freed: Cops

A man who spent more than 25 years on death row before being exonerated of murder has been fatally shot at a funeral, according to police in Pennsylvania.

Christopher Williams, 62, was shot in the head on the 3000 block of West Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia at about 2:20 p.m. on Friday.

Williams, who had been released in February 2021, had been driving as part of a funeral procession for Tyree Little, another formerly incarcerated man, reported local newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia police told Newsweek that Williams was transported to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 2:27 p.m.

A police spokesperson added: "No arrest and no weapon recovered. The investigation is active and ongoing with [the] homicide detectives division."

Williams had spent close to three decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of four murders.

In December 2019, he was exonerated over a 1989 triple murder in North Philadelphia, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. He was freed in 2021 after his final murder conviction was overturned.

Williams and co-defendant Theophalis Wilson had been convicted of the 1989 murders on the basis of false testimony, as well as suppressed evidence.

When he was released, Williams said: "Never in the history of the Pennsylvania judicial system has someone been charged with six murders, acquitted of two and now exonerated of four. If this was done to me, the question remains: who else was it done to?"

The Death Penalty Information Center states that, since 1973, at least 190 people who were sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.

Wilson, who was a family friend of Williams and was also exonerated after close to three decades in prison, has expressed fears for formerly incarcerated people.

After Williams' shooting, Wilson told the Inquirer: "Although we're actually innocent, not everyone believes it. I spent 28 years in jail for knowing him. I have to be on guard."

Maxine Mathis, Williams' sister, said he had spent the 22 months since his release working in construction and reconnecting with his family. He was a father of six.

She added that Williams had never stopped advocating for the rights of people who he believed had been wrongfully convicted. He would return to prison in order to visit friends who were still incarcerated.

Terrance Lewis, who was also recently exonerated, told the newspaper: "He was a soldier, a trooper, a champion for justice. He was still learning how to give back. His life just began, and it was taken from him."