WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) – A 58-year-old northern Illinois man who spent nearly half of his life behind bars after being found guilty of killing his ex-wife has walked out of prison after a judge vacated his 1994 conviction. Herman Williams of Gurnee was freed from the downstate Sheridan Correctional Center on Tuesday following nearly 29 years of incarceration after the judge threw out his conviction for killing Penny Williams. Her body was found in a Waukegan pond on Sept. 26, 1993. The Navy veteran’s exoneration came after work by his attorneys affiliated with the Illinois Innocence Project and then confirmed and acknowledged by the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.
