After decades in prison, an exonerated Philadelphia man was fatally shot at a funeral

A wrongly convicted Philadelphia man who spent nearly three decades in prison before his release last year was gunned down while attending a funeral, authorities said Wednesday.

No arrests were immediately made after Christopher Williams, 62, “suffered gunshot wounds to the head” at Mount Peace Cemetery at 2:20 p.m. EST Friday, Philadelphia police said in a statement to NBC News.

He was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced at 2:27 p.m., police said.

Williams had been convicted in two separate cases, a triple murder in 1989 and for the slaying of Michael Haynesworth, who was also killed that year. 

Williams and co-defendant Troy Coulston were convicted in 1992 for the Haynesworth murder. Then in 1993, Williams and co-defendant Theophalis Wilson were convicted of the triple slaying.

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Decades later, Philadelphia prosecutors moved to dismiss the murder convictions against Williams in both cases after finding tainted testimony and exculpatory evidence that had been discovered by police but never shared with defense lawyers, officials said.

Since his release from prison 22 months ago, Williams had been working as a carpenter with hopes of starting his own construction business that would employ freed convicts, a family friend said.