JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville man who spent 42 years in prison for a murder he did not commit and was released only five years ago, died at age 80, his family confirmed.
Clifford Williams was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1976.
Williams and his nephew were accused of killing a woman and shooting another, but an investigation found there was insufficient evidence.
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Another man ended up confessing to the shooting, but he was never charged, or investigated — and has since died.
Williams was released in 2019.
In 2020, Williams received $2.15 million in compensation from the government.
News4JAX interviewed Williams in 2020, and he revealed an unexpected diagnosis of prostate cancer.
“The last year, they’ve been fighting over at Shands [for me]. And now I’m cancer-free. It’ll be a year March 28 this year,” Williams said.
Humble, loving — and never bitter. People who knew Clifford Williams Junior say he deserved more.
“I was blessed to have him in my life as well as his family and his wife,” Dana Miller, Williams’ godson, said.
Miller got to spend the last five years with Williams and knew him before he was free.
“When I met him, we was in prison together. He was like a father figure to me. He taught me how to do time, as far as respecting myself, respecting others, and getting out of there,” Miller said.
Miller recalls Williams spending a lot of time in the law library trying to find loopholes.
“Because he was wrongly convicted,” Miller said.
Despite being in prison for 42 years, Williams always kept a smile on his face.
“When you meet him, you, you would think that he would be bitter and he would be angry, that he would be blaming people for the situation that he was in, the way he was treated. But he’s never talked about that. He always talked about, God... With a big grin on his face,” Miller said.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the average time spent in prison for those wrongfully convicted on death row is eight years. Williams spent five times that, at 42 years.
“He survived. And maybe it was his demeanor. Maybe it was because he wasn’t bitter. And because he knew he was telling the truth,” Former Florida Senator Audrey Gibson said.
In 2020, Gibson spoke with News4Jax anchor Joy Purdy about filing the claims bill for Williams to be compensated for his time in prison.
I just thought how unfair it is that a person’s been pretty much half of their life incarcerated for something that they did not do.” 9;23 “I want him to be the symbol of what we need to do to make sure that we don’t incarcerate people willy nilly, without the correct information.”
They say to remember him as a man who forgave the horrendous wrong done to him.
And as a man who was happy in his freedom.
Williams’ viewing will be this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at C.L. Page mortuary off Moncrief Road.
The funeral is at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Bethel Baptist Church on Helena Street.