Editing Wayne Williams (section)

==Reopening investigations==
Williams has maintained his innocence from the beginning and claimed that Atlanta officials covered up evidence of [[Ku Klux Klan|KKK]] involvement in the killings to avoid a [[race war]] in the city. His lawyers have said the conviction was a "profound [[miscarriage of justice]]" that has kept an innocent man incarcerated for the majority of his adult life and allowed the real killers to go free.<ref>{{cite web|first=Melanie|last=Radzicki McManus|url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/was-wrong-person-convicted-in-atlanta-child-murders.htm|title=Was the Wrong Person Convicted in the Atlanta Child Murders?|website=[[HowStuffWorks]]|date=January 26, 2018|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> In contrast, Joseph Drolet, who prosecuted Williams at trial, has stood by Williams's convictions. He has emphasized that, after Williams was arrested, "the murders stopped and there has been nothing since."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/police-reopen-atlanta-child-killing-cases|title=Police Reopen Atlanta Child Killing Cases|publisher=[[Fox News]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=May 7, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref>

Other observers have criticized the thoroughness of the investigation and the validity of its conclusions.<ref name="AP">{{cite news|first=Allen G.|last=Breed|url=http://truthinjustice.org/wayne-williams.htm|title=Atlanta Revisits 1981 Child Murders|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=May 15, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018|via=truthinjustice.org}}</ref> The author [[James Baldwin]], in his essay ''[[The Evidence of Things Not Seen]]'' (1985), raised questions about Williams' guilt. Members of his community and several of the victims' parents did not believe that Williams, the son of two professional teachers, could have killed so many.<ref name="Investigators">{{cite episode|series=The Investigators|series-link=The Investigators (American TV series) |title=Missing in Atlanta|network=[[TruTV]]|air-date=May 20, 2004|season=5|number=141}}</ref>

On May 6, 2005, [[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb County]] Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the reopening of the murder cases of four boys killed in that county between February and May 1981, whose deaths had been attributed to Williams.<ref name="Investigators" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/07/met_452415.shtml|title=Police reopen some Atlanta child killing cases|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 7, 2005}}</ref> The announcement was welcomed by relatives of some victims, who said they believe the wrong man was blamed for many of the murders.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/10/met_452723.shtml|title=Atlanta murder cases are reopened after 20 years|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=October 5, 2005}}</ref>

Graham, who was serving as an assistant police chief in neighboring [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] at the time of the murders, said his decision to reopen the cases was driven solely by his belief in Williams's innocence. Former [[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb County]] [[Sheriff]] and convicted murderer [[Sidney Dorsey]], who was an Atlanta homicide detective at the time, also said he believed Williams was wrongly blamed for the murders. "If they arrested a white guy," he said, "there would have been riots across the U.S.."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/11/met_452832.shtml|title=Police chief reopens 5th child slaying case|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 11, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Cold-case squad to probe decades-old Atlanta murders |publisher=CNN Justice |date=May 7, 2005 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/07/wayne.williams/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708220719/http://articles.cnn.com/2005-05-07/justice/wayne.williams_1_unsolved-murder-cold-case-squad-murder-cases?_s=PM:LAW |archive-date=July 8, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/30/met_454629.shtml|title=Former DeKalb sheriff prefers talk of Williams' innocence|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 30, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1998/06/04/met_230150.shtml|title=Child killer called innocent|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=June 4, 1998}}</ref> Dorsey is now serving a life sentence after being convicted of ordering the murder of his election opponent [[Derwin Brown]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=July 11, 2002|title=Former Sheriff Guilty in Successor's Killing|page=A14|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/us/former-sheriff-guilty-in-successor-s-killing.html|url-status=live|url-access=limited|access-date=March 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506034002/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/us/former-sheriff-guilty-in-successor-s-killing.html|archive-date=May 6, 2021}}</ref> 

[[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] authorities have not reopened any of the cases under their jurisdiction.<ref name="Investigators" />

According to an August 2005 report, Charles T. Sanders, a [[white supremacist]] affiliated with the KKK and an early suspect in the murders, once praised the crimes in secretly recorded conversations. Although Sanders did not publicly claim responsibility for any of the deaths, he told an informant for the [[Georgia Bureau of Investigation]] in a 1981 recording that the killer had "wiped out a thousand future generations of [[nigger]]s".<ref>{{cite news|first=Harry R.|last=Weber|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080601039.html|title=Klan Was Probed in Child Killings In Atlanta|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=August 7, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> An anonymous alleged former friend of Sanders told documentarian Payne Lindsey (''[[Atlanta Monster]]'') that Sanders had taken credit for the murders mentioned in a 1986 ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' article,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spin.com/featured/atlanta-child-murders-wayne-williams-1986-feature/|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Our 1986 Feature, "A Question of Justice"|work=[[Spin Magazine|Spin]]|type=Excerpt from original September 1986 article and full article investigating and exploring the Sanders brothers involvement.}}</ref> claiming that his brothers were also involved.

Sanders did not directly implicate the [[KKK]] or lead his friend to believe that anyone else from the organization was involved. Sanders allegedly mused over how lucky he was that he and Williams had the same carpet and that they both owned a white German shepherd. The anonymous former friend went on to say that, "Once it was pinned on Wayne Williams, they were through. That was their way out."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://atlantamonster.com/|title=Atlanta Monster|series=Season 1 Episode 7: Conspiracy? 36:50}}</ref> Police dropped the probe into possible Klan involvement when Sanders and two of his brothers passed lie detector tests in which they denied their involvement. The case was once again closed on July 21, 2006.<ref>{{cite news|title=Was Wayne Williams framed?/Recruiter for KKK said to admit role in Atlanta murders|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1991_814713/was-wayne-williams-framed-recruiter-for-kkk-said-t.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615140549/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1991_814713/was-wayne-williams-framed-recruiter-for-kkk-said-t.html|work=[[Houston Chronicle]]|agency=Section A, Page 4, 2 STAR Edition|date=October 9, 1991|archive-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Mark|last=Curridan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBxUpILloWwC&q=%22niggers%22&pg=PA36|title=New Questions in Atlanta Murders - Did prosecutors withhold evidence of Klan involvement in children's death?|journal=[[ABA Journal]]|publisher=[[American Bar Association]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=May 1992|page=36}}</ref>

Former FBI [[offender profiling|profiler]] [[John E. Douglas]] wrote in his book ''[[Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit]]'' that, in his opinion, "forensic and behavioral evidence points conclusively to Wayne Williams as the killer of eleven young men in Atlanta." He added, however, that he believed there was "no strong evidence linking him to all or even most of the deaths and disappearances of children in that city between 1979 and 1981".<ref name="Douglas, J 1986 p. 147-9">{{cite book|first1=John E.|last1=Douglas|author-link1=John E. Douglas|first2=Mark|last2=Olshaker|author-link2=Mark Olshaker|title=Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit|publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]]|location=Portsmouth, New Hampshire|date=1986|pages=147–9|isbn=0-434-00262-3}}</ref>

In 2007, the FBI performed [[DNA test]]s on two human hairs found on one of the victims. The [[mitochondrial DNA]] sequence in the hairs would eliminate 99.5% of people, and 98% of African-Americans, by not matching their DNA; the sequence found matched Williams's DNA.<ref name="Douglas, J 1986 p. 147-9"/>

DNA testing was performed in 2010 on scalp hairs found on the body of 11-year-old victim Patrick Baltazar. While the results were not firmly conclusive, the DNA sequence found appears in only 29 of 1,148 African-American hair samples in the FBI's database, including that of Williams.<ref>{{cite news |author=Jim Polk |url=https://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/09/williams.dna.test/index.html |title=DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=June 9, 2010 |access-date=June 10, 2022}}</ref> The Baltazar case was included among 10 additional victims presented to the jury at Williams' trial, although he was never charged in any of those cases.<ref name="washingtonpost2007">{{cite news|title=DA: DNA Tests Link Williams to Killings|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601058.html|author=Harry R. Weber|agency=Associated Press|date=June 26, 2007|access-date=November 26, 2017}}</ref>

Dog hairs found on Baltazar's body were tested in 2007 by the genetics laboratory at the [[University of California, Davis]] School of Veterinary Medicine, which found a DNA sequence also present in the Williams family's [[German Shepherd]]. However, the director of the laboratory, Elizabeth Wictum, said that, while the results were "fairly significant", they were not conclusive. Only mitochondrial DNA was tested; unlike nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA cannot be shown to be unique to an individual dog. The report said the hairs on the bodies contained the same DNA sequence as Williams's dog, a DNA sequence that occurs in about 1 in 100 dogs.<ref name="washingtonpost2007"/> The FBI report stated that "Wayne Williams cannot be excluded" as a suspect in the case.<ref>{{cite news|author=Jim Polk |url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/09/williams.dna.test/ |title=DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case |publisher=CNN.com |date=September 6, 2010|access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>

A [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] study, released in April 2015, concluded that numerous hair analyses conducted by FBI examiners during the 1980s and 1990s "may have failed to meet professional standards." Defense attorney Lynn Whatley immediately announced that the report would form the basis for a new appeal, but prosecutors responded that hair evidence played only a minor role in Williams's conviction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Wayne Williams hopes new information leads to appeal|url=http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2015/04/30/wayne-williams-hair-evidence-fbi/26678019/|access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref>

On March 21, 2019, Atlanta Mayor [[Keisha Lance Bottoms]] and Atlanta Police Chief [[Erika Shields]] announced that officials would re-test evidence from the murders, which will be gathered by the Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County District Attorney's Office, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In a news conference, Bottoms said, "It may be there is nothing left to be tested. But I do think history will judge us by our actions, and we will be able to say we tried."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-atlanta-mayor-announces-new-look-atlanta-child-murders/3LXuKcCzoaIeJkzF0PwBkM/|title=Police plan to re-test Atlanta Child Murders evidence|last=Sharpe|first=Joshua|newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|access-date=March 21, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thepublicsradio.org/article/atlantas-mayor-pushes-for-review-in-child-murders-cases|title=Atlanta's Mayor pushes for review in 'Child Murders' cases|date=March 21, 2019|website=The Public's Radio|access-date=March 22, 2019}}</ref>

In 2019, two Atlanta men, Derwin Davis and Isaac Rogers, claimed that Williams had attempted to abduct them in 1979 and 1981 respectively.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sharpe|first=Joshua|date=August 19, 2019|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Man says he escaped Wayne Williams|work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/says-escaped-the-atlanta-child-murders-suspect-now-talking/IHE056DNiE9FJZMgrFRpdM/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Pelisek|first=Christine|date=July 25, 2019|title=Man Recounts Fleeing as Child From 'Atlanta Monster Suspect Wayne Williams:'He Was on a Mission'|work=People Magazine|url=https://people.com/crime/wayne-williams-atlanta-monster-suspect-man-recounts-fleeing/}}</ref>