JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Clifford "Boonie" Williams has died just two months shy of his fifth year as a free man, his family confirmed.
Williams was incarcerated in 1976 and spent 43 years in prison -- the first four of them on death row, before he was resentenced to life. He and his nephew, Nathan Myers, had been wrongfully convicted in a murder and attempted murder in Jacksonville.
Their convictions were overturned in March 2019, the first wrongful convictions discovered by Jacksonville's Conviction Integrity Review Unit, an advent of Florida State Attorney Melissa Nelson's office.
When Williams was found ineligible for automatic compensation from the state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill to pay him $2 million.
On March 28, 2019, Williams was released along with his nephew. When he left prison, he kissed the sidewalk.
On March 30, he was welcomed with a homecoming picnic by his family in a beautiful scene shown on First Coast News.
One by one, family members came and embraced him. He clung to his "baby" brother, Alfonso, exchanging, "I love you"'s. "You're okay," Alfonso told him. "You're going to be okay."
Some of the family members who attended had never met him -- his daughter dutifully introduced him to each one.
When Williams spoke that day, he said some believed he would die in prison. "But God didn't," he said. "He didn't forget me."
Visitation for Clifford Williams will be held at C.L. Page Mortuary at 3031 Moncrief Road Friday.
His funeral service will be held at Mt. Bethel Baptist Church at 1602 Helena Street Saturday.
