Slate

Slate On the evening of June 30, 1985, Virdeen Willis Jr., an off-duty official at a state prison, was drinking with two women in a bar on Chicago's South Side. As he and his companions left, someone approached and shot him fatally in the neck. Four days later, police arrested Steven Smith, a convicted killer who had served time in the facility where Willis worked. Smith denied any involvement, the police couldn't produce the murder weapon, and no physical evidence tied him to the crime. About all the prosecution had to offer was a witness, Debrah Caraway, who said she saw Smith shoot Willis. The prosecution's case was far from ideal, and Caraway was one of its big liabilities. The day of the murder, she had been smoking crack. She was across the street when Willis was shot. Her boyfriend had been considered as a suspect before Smith was arrested. The evidence suggesting Smith wasn't the culprit was also strong. The two women who were standing next to Willis when he was shot couldn't identify Smith as the gunman. Several witnesses said Smith had left the bar with two friends before Willis walked out—not alone and afterward, as Caraway claimed. smith, police, identifications, eyewitness, witness, lineup, evidence, willis, two, witnesses, wells, testimony, state, people, one, man, criminal, convictions, been, time, system, says, said, justice, juries, inmates, illinois, identified, false, dna, death, crime, courts, convicted, commission