A former Gurnee man and U.S. Navy veteran has won a $13 million settlement in a lawsuit after he served nearly 29 years in prison before being exonerated in the murder of his ex-wife.
Herman Williams, formerly of Gurnee, was convicted by a jury in 1994 of first-degree murder.
William’s ex-wife, Penny Williams, 27, was found dead in a pond in Waukegan on September 26, 1993, days after she had gone missing.
Her death was determined to be from blunt force trauma.
The Chicago Tribune reported at the time of Williams’ conviction that he gave a 15-minute speech before his sentencing attacking his defense attorney, the jury, prosecutors and the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.
Williams said that he was the victim of malicious prosecution and inadequate defense.
He was sentenced to natural life in prison by Lake County Judge Charles Scott.
In September 2022, prosecutors with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys for Williams presented agreed orders to a Lake County judge to vacate the man’s conviction.
Prosecutors, citing “scientifically unsupported evidence” presented during the trial and new DNA results, said they no longer had faith in the original verdict.
“Every conviction must have integrity; it must be grounded in science and in fact, and it must be the product of a fair police investigation and trial. Because of deeply erroneous scientific evidence, new DNA results, and a faulty trial, our office was compelled to agree to Mr. Williams’ release,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said at the time.
“While we acknowledge that Mr. Williams is gaining his freedom due to overwhelming new evidence that calls into question the verdict, we know that the victim’s family is suffering to understand how so many mistakes could have been made nearly 30 years ago,” Rinehart said.
Kevin Malia, the chief of the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit, said that two separate forensic pathologists agreed that the trial jury heard “scientifically unsupported” evidence regarding the time that Penny Williams died.
According to documents filed in July 2022, Lake County Forensic Pathologist Dr. Eimad Zakariya and defense-retained expert Dr. James Filkins both agreed that the original trial expert, Dr. Nancy Jones, had wrongly narrowed the date of death to a few hours between the night of September 22, 1993, and September 23, 1993.
The jury was told that these hours were the only possible window of death.
Zakariya and Filkins disputed that and said the time of death was much closer to the time when the body was recovered on September 26, 1993.
Zakariya and Filkins said that Jones’ opinion given at trial had no scientific basis.
Prosecutors said that they learned Jones had given a different opinion in 1993 that expanded the possible window of death but that her opinion had not been tendered to the defense prior to trial.
The state’s attorney’s office said new DNA testing conducted in 2021 showed that Williams was excluded from being the source of the male DNA found under Penny Williams’ fingernails at the time of her autopsy.
The new DNA results also disputed what trial prosecutors argued to the jury in 1994 that Penny Williams was not actually the source of a small amount of blood recovered in Herman Williams’s vehicle, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Lake County Judge Mark Levitt granted the request from prosecutors and the defense to vacate Williams’ conviction during the September 2022 court hearing.
Illinois Innocence Project Co-Director Lauren Kaeseberg, who represented Williams, said he “lost nearly three decades of his life, and his children had to grow up thinking their own father killed their mother — because of the misconduct and faulty forensics that plagued this case.”
“We have to push for more accountability and transparency among law enforcement and prosecutors to prevent more families being torn apart by wrongful conviction,” Kaeseberg said.
A Lake County judge in June 2024 granted Williams a certificate of innocence.
“This is not only an important step in his long road to rebuild his life, but has profound meaning to Herman, who has regrettably had to live as a convicted felon for more than 30 years,” attorneys for Williams said in a statement.
Chicago-based law firms Romanucci and Blandin, along with Hart McLaughlin and Eldridge, filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of Williams in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 2023.
Williams was 29 and a decorated member of the U.S. Navy who had served two tours in the Gulf War and was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Base in Lake County in 1993.
He shared two young children, 6-year-old Charlie and 3-year-old Crystal, with his former wife, Penny.
Herman Williams had remarried his second wife, Kitty, but he and Penny Williams maintained a “strong, platonic relationship” despite their divorce and were committed to the well-being of their children, his attorneys said.
Prosecutors theorized at trial that Herman Williams murdered his wife on September 22, 1993, likely sometime between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Attorneys for Williams say that the theory was false and Herman and Penny had left their apartment around 7:45 p.m. to go shopping while their neighbor watched their children.
The two returned to their neighbor’s later that evening, picked up the children and returned to their apartment.
Penny was still alive and well when Herman left their apartment about 6:45 a.m. the next morning to take the children to school and babysitters before reporting to work at the Naval base.
Herman returned from the Naval base that afternoon and Penny was gone.
Herman called the Gurnee Police Department that night after Penny did not return. He was told he needed to wait until more time had passed before he could do so.
Penny’s purse was turned in to the Naval base the next day after being found in the trash at a Park City car wash.
An investigation was initiated, with the Great Lakes Major Crime Task Force leading the investigation.
Penny’s body was found in a shallow pond two days later near Midlane Country Club in Waukegan.
The Major Crime Task Force had “tunnel vision” and focused solely on Herman as the suspect in Penny’s murder, attorneys for the man said.
The civil lawsuit said the misconduct of members of the Major Crime Task Force, as well as Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Mermel and medical examiner Nancy Jones, caused William’s wrongful conviction.
Sgt. Lou Tessmann manufactured a confession that Herman never gave, the suit said. Mermel, with the assistance of other Major Crime Task Force officers, manufactured evidence that Penny’s purse was found in a dumpster near Herman’s second wife’s apartment — not at the car wash, the suit said.
Mermel and Jones fabricated a time-of-death opinion that Penny was killed between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on that Wednesday evening, the suit said.
“All the while, both Mermel and Jones concealed the opinion Dr. Jones had previously given, which was that the death could have occurred much later into Thursday and Friday, when Herman’s whereabouts were accounted for,” attorneys for Williams said.
It was later learned Tessman repeatedly fabricated confessions in other cases, the suit said.
His actions have resulted in three exonerations in addition to Williams, leading the state’s attorney’s office to concede in 2022 that Tessmann had a pattern of fabricating evidence.
Mermel was forced to resign from the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2011 due to behavior unbecoming of a law enforcement officer.
“Herman’s wrongful conviction was the result of a fabricated confession, manufactured and concealed evidence, and false testimony by law enforcement, by public servants who abandoned their professional and ethical obligations to falsely acquire this conviction to advance their careers,” the firms said in a statement.
Williams, who is now 61, spent nearly 29 years incarcerated until he was released in 2022 following his exoneration.
Williams and his attorneys recently reached a $13 million settlement with the defendants in the suit during mediation efforts.
“After his wrongful conviction in 1994, the damages Herman sustained as a result of the defendants’ misconduct are unspeakable. Not only did he lose more than 28 years of his life and suffer in prison as an innocent man, but his two children, who were only six and three years old at the time of Penny’s murder, grew up without either of their parents, and worse, under the mistaken belief that their father murdered their mother,” attorney Antonio M. Romanucci said.
Williams has reconciled with his children and is “fighting every day” to restore his life and his relationships, Romanucci said.
“Herman’s case was truly a travesty of justice, not only because Herman and his children suffered immeasurably, but because Penny Williams’ murder remains unsolved. We are pleased to have resolved this case only two years after filing suit, which is very quick compared to other wrongful conviction cases. While Herman can never get back the years he spent in prison as an innocent man, we hope this settlement will help him close this painful chapter in his life and find peace in the years ahead,” attorney Brian Eldridge said.
Attorney John Marrese said this is the last chapter in Williams’ legal battle to rectify his wrongful conviction and prove his innocence.
“He fought for decades to win his freedom from prison, obtain a certificate of innocence from the very court in which he was convicted, and now, to secure this $13 million settlement with the law enforcement agencies that convicted him. Herman’s story is one of incredible perseverance,” Marrese said.