Shawn Williams spent 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. After his exoneration and release from prison in 2018, White & Case and co-counsel Shanies Law Office began the battle to win compensation for him from the City of New York. The result—a US$10.5 million settlement, believed to be the highest reached in wrongful conviction cases connected to notorious former New York City Police Department Detective Louis Scarcella—is a small step toward restitution.

"While I can never get back what was taken from me, this money is going to give me a chance at building the life I never had," says Williams.

An injustice

In 1994 Williams, then 20 years of age, was wrongfully convicted of the second-degree murder of his friend Marvin Mason in Brooklyn. Williams was in Reading, Pennsylvania, at the time of the murder, and documentary evidence and witnesses supported his alibi. No DNA evidence, fingerprints, weapon or motive linked Williams to the murder.

Instead, Williams' conviction was based solely on the testimony of a single eyewitness, who recanted in 2014. In a sworn affidavit recanting her testimony, that eyewitness admitted that she did not, in fact, see Williams fleeing from the scene and that Detectives Scarcella, Stephen Chmil and Lewis Bond had coerced her into falsely naming Williams. Since 2013, nearly 20 convictions involving alleged misconduct by Detective Scarcella have been overturned, and the City of New York has paid out tens of millions of dollars to settle civil suits related to his cases.

Still, when faced with the new evidence, the Kings County District Attorney's Office fought to keep Williams in prison. Finally, Williams, with representation by White & Case partner Sam Hershey who was then at another law firm, won his freedom. His conviction was vacated in 2018.

A new start

After Hershey, who had kept in touch with Williams, moved to White & Case, he joined forces with civil rights lawyers David Shanies and Deborah Francois of Shanies Law Office to seek compensation for Williams.

The White & Case team—which consisted of Hershey, partner Kevin Bolan, associate Wyatt Smith and legal assistant Daniela De la Cruz—filed two civil cases, one against the State of New York with the New York Court of Claims and another against the City of New York with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Court of Claims case went to trial, and the judge ruled against Williams—a decision the White & Case team, with Shanies Law Office, is appealing. The City of New York, however, agreed to settle the District Court case for US$10.5 million.

"Winning a result like this is a reminder of how important it is to take on pro bono work and fight for causes that you really believe in, representing people who would otherwise be lost in the justice system," says Hershey.

Photo by Holly Pickett © The New York Times/Redux
Shawn Williams, center, leaving the courthouse with White & Case partner Sam Hershey, left, and Cleary Gottlieb partner Victor L. Hou, right.