after spending more than 40 years in
prison for a crime they did not commit
to men and uncle and his nephew
tearfully embrace each other then their
families
it came moments after a Jacksonville
judge declared the two men are now free
then is the state attorney spoke to
reporters about justice nathan Meyers
kept his hands on a Bible then walked to
the podium and said this right now today
I'm able to go back to my family and I'm
happy for the first time since 1976
Clifford Williams and Nathan Meyers are
heading home to be with their families
they were 18 and 34 years old when they
were convicted of murdering a
Jacksonville woman and now they're 61
and 77 years old this is new video from
about 30 minutes ago when Williams and
Myers walked out of the State Attorney's
Office ready to go home arm in arm Myers
wiped off the ground got down and kissed
it and then said praise the Lord a
review of their case found that the
evidence was insufficient and a judge
today
ordered them set free Turk is looking
into how many prison inmates have been
exonerated so far this year across the
country we begin though with news four
checks reporter Jim Pickett and Jim you
just spoke with the men who say they
relied on their faith all these years
and they did they praised God they
praise Jesus they praised all the people
that worked on this case quite an
emotional afternoon it seemed to go on
for some time but you can imagine for
Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams this
was just a blip because they were in
jail for 43 years and they were released
I want to show you some of this video
again when they walk out of these doors
behind me here you can see them pointing
up pointing to the Sun just pleased to
be outside pleased to be with their
family and pleased to be going home and
as you had mentioned a little bit later
after they did that they walked down the
road a little bit here just getting
ready to go to their car and then what
had happened is Nathan Myers grabbed a
handkerchief wiped off the ground as you
saw there and then kissed the ground
again praising the Lord that they were
free they worked they said for years to
try to get people to believe them that
they did not commit this crime a crime
that another man told some other people
that he did but that man has since died
so right now these men are heading home
they hopped into a car along with their
family they're going with them tonight
want to put things into perspective here
for you a little bit at the time when
these men went to jail in 1976 gas was
only 59 cents quite a change today 43
years later they're happy I asked hey
what are you going to have for dinner
they said anything they want now they
did talk to us briefly up in the State
Attorney's Office
you can tell they got emotional it was
nerve wrecking right now really I'm
nervous
you know because I feel like I'm still
locked up once I get my family knowing I
can look back I'd only have no offices
around me to tell me what to do how to
do it
and every other to hit here I think I'd
be alright
well my mother she died while with on
death row
I just wanted to get out and be with my
sick kid they was gone and what nobody
as you can imagine a very emotional time
for Clifford Williams you know they were
accused of killing Jeannette Williams
forty-three years ago now her family was
not here though they have written
letters saying that they're supportive
of what have happened
they've been cooperative at this point
but the situation though they said they
just hope that the Lord forgives
everyone that was involved we're live
from the State Attorney's Office Jim
Peng at channel 4 the local station
Jim is clear at this point that these
two men will just try to acclimate to
life in 2019 but do you know what's next
for them from a legal standpoint
well we know that on the legal end there
is a chance that they could get some
reparation some money from the state
because of what happened here obviously
there could be lawsuits their attorneys
weren't ready to talk about that at this
point and I want to tell you coming up
all tonight all new at 6:00 we're gonna
look back more at this case of exactly
what happened the crime back then some
of the video the pictures taken back
then it will surprise you how all of
this came down Jim picket reporting to
us life thank you Jim