Wrongfully Convicted.
Charged at seventeen with a 1992 Houston murder. Sentenced to death at twenty-one. The evidence never held up.
The bullet was a .22.
The state's expert told the jury .25 caliber. In 1998 he admitted it was a .22, from the only witness's own gun.
Ten years on death row.
He watched more than 450 men executed. In 2005, a Supreme Court ruling ended his death sentence. He is still in prison.
Still writing. Still fighting.
Three degrees, four books, and a craft built by hand. Three decades in, he is still fighting to come home.
What the jury never heard.
The case rested on one witness and one expert. A prosecutor later doubted the witness, and Texas has confirmed the expert was wrong.
Read his story- 1992
Charged at seventeen with the murder of Adonius Collier in Houston's Hermann Park.
- 1995
Convicted and sentenced to death at twenty-one. The state's expert tells the jury the fatal bullet was a .25. The only eyewitness testifies under a plea deal.
- 1998
The expert writes to the prosecutor that he was wrong: the fatal bullet came from the witness's own .22 Derringer, a gun the lab had never tested.
- 1999
A Harris County prosecutor writes that at trial the witness was “very evasive and apparently not at all truthful.”
- 2000
A Texas judge recommends relief: Nanon was denied effective counsel at trial. In 2002, the Court of Criminal Appeals rejects the recommendation in a two-page order.
- 2005
Roper v. Simmons ends the death penalty for crimes committed before eighteen. His sentence is commuted to life in prison.
- 2012
A federal court's grant of relief is reversed by the Fifth Circuit.
- 2019
Georgetown University's Making an Exoneree program reinvestigates the case.
- 2024
The Texas Forensic Science Commission issues a 157-page report confirming that the ballistics testimony used to convict him was wrong.
- 2027
Nanon becomes eligible for parole.
A life built inside.
He did not wait on the system. He studied, wrote, and became a peer educator and counselor to the men around him.
- GED
- A.A., Liberal Arts, Trinity Valley Community College
- B.S., Behavioral Sciences, University of Houston-Clear Lake
- M.A., Humanities
- M.A., Literature, nearly complete
“If Nanon Williams is not allowed to re-enter society, society will be the worse for it.”
His work.
- Still Surviving2003, autobiography
- The Darkest Hour2002, stories and interviews
- The Darkest Hour2014, nonfiction, co-authored
- The Ties That Bind Us2000, poetry
Four books, written from inside.
See the books
Buckles, pendants, rings, and more, made by hand in metal and leather.
See his craftStand with Nanon.
Know the case. Share it. Follow the reinvestigation and help bring him home.
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