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Waiting to Hear
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Published: August 13, 2008
For years now, Don Williams has stayed silent in regard to all the questions about the Jill Marker beating case, which he worked before he retired as a detective with the Winston-Salem Police Department. Now, a citizens' panel reviewing the case is considering whether it should have him subpoenaed. The answer should be obvious: by all means.
In 1997, Kalvin Michael Smith was convicted in the 1995 beating of Marker. Williams' work helped win that conviction. Smith, who's been in prison for more than 10 years, maintains his innocence and wants a new trial. The Duke Law School Innocence Project and the Journal have raised serious questions about Williams' handling of the case. But since he talked to the Journal for a 2004 series about the case, Williams has said little publicly about it.
The review panel came to a consensus that Williams is needed to answer critical questions about suspects and witness testimony, Erik Spencer reported last week in the Journal. The panel lacks subpoena power, but it could ask the city council to subpoena Williams.
The chairman of the panel, Guy Blynn, said that, "We need to think about whether we should ask the city council to subpoena Williams." But panel member Barry Lyons said that "we're going to need something very compelling" before making that request.
We understand the hard-working panel's caution. Some members realize that they'd better carefully craft their questions for Williams, and Blynn has asked that one of the two city police officers assisting the panel do that.
It's time to get going with the questions and the subpoena. Williams would certainly be a reluctant witness, and he may provide little help. But the panel must try to get whatever answers it can from him. And the time to do that is now.
With all due respect to the panel, it's not going to find some smoking gun to ask Williams about. Yet, enough questions have been raised about his handling of the case that it's clear that he should be subpoenaed now.
If that happens, the city council would conduct the interview with him. The panel should push for the interview to be done in public, and it should insist that it be able to supply follow-up questions for council members to ask Williams.
As Blynn noted, the clock is running. "If we're going to do something with this information, we need to do it soon," he said.
Marker and her family deserve answers to the questions in this case, as does Smith.
So does the public.
It's time to hear from Don Williams. We're waiting.
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