Oct. 7, 2004
Wife says they will not live here or in Mississippi
By BOB SABLATURA
Chronicle Correspondent
HUNTSVILLE - Sporting a new set of street clothes and $100 in his pocket, Ernest Ray Willis walked out of prison a free man Wednesday, a day after a state district judge ordered his release from Texas' death row.
Willis, 59, spent more than 17 years awaiting execution in the fiery death of Elizabeth Grace Belue, 24, of San Antonio.
Prosecutors now acknowledge that Willis' conviction was based on faulty scientific evidence.
Willis bounded down the front steps of the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and into the arms of his wife, Verilyn, on their fourth wedding anniversary. Because death row inmates are isolated and not allowed contact visits, it was the first time they touched.
"I'm not bitter," Willis said. "I think what goes around comes around. The people that knew I was innocent to start with — they'll get theirs. You know, everything comes home."
Asked to identify the people, he replied: "All of them: prosecutors, all the Pecos County law enforcement."
Wife waiting outside jail
The speedy release came as a surprise to Willis and his attorneys, who were expecting the judge's order to take several days to process.
"I suppose, until he walked out of the gates today, it was hard to feel like it was really going to happen," said Walter Loughlin, one of four attorneys who represented Willis in his successful appeal.
According to prison authorities, Willis learned of his imminent release just hours before he became a free man.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Willis was visiting with his wife at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston when he was told he would be processed for immediate release.
He was taken back to his cell and given the opportunity to pack his belongings, Lyons said.
"He opted instead to have his property destroyed," she said.
Prison policy does not allow released inmates to give their property to other inmates, Lyons explained.
Willis was given a set of street clothes and some spending money, then transported to the Walls Unit in Huntsville, where he was released about 1:30 p.m., Lyons said.
He was met by his wife, who traveled to Huntsville to await his arrival after their morning visit was cut short.
"We had some tears," said Verilyn Willis, 54. "We're not going to stay in Texas. And we're not going to stay in Mississippi. I've got two houses, and as soon as they're sold, we're gone."
Met on death row
She said they met on death row, where her brother, Ricky McGinn, was awaiting execution for the rape-slaying of his 12-year-old stepdaughter. McGinn was executed in 2000, the same year she and Willis were wed by proxy.
"This is what kept me going," Willis said, his arm tightly around his wife. "We're just going to play it by ear. It really didn't sink in until I walked out that door there."
Willis, who at one point brushed aside a tear as his voice choked with emotion, was given a plaid shirt, green pants and white running shoes, along with 10 days worth of medication, legal documents and $100, the standard amount given to released inmates.
"For 18 years, $100," he said.
His wife said she quickly wanted to get him some jeans and a western shirt.
TDCJ spokesman Mike Viesca said he was aware Willis' release had been ordered, but was not sure when his agency would receive the formal paperwork authorizing the release.
When TDCJ officials received that paperwork Wednesday morning, they acted as quickly as possible to release Willis from death row.
"The judge's order said Willis was to be released without delay," Viesca said. "So we were going to accommodate that order."
U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson found in August that scientific evidence of arson was faulty and ordered the state to either set Willis free or retry him on charges of setting a 1986 fire that killed Belue and Gail Joe Allison, 25, in Iraan, about 230 miles west of San Antonio.
The Texas attorney general's office declined to appeal Furgeson's decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
DA asked for release
Ori White, district attorney in Pecos County since 1997, said Tuesday that he doesn't think Willis was involved, even if a crime was committed.
He asked state District Judge Brock Jones to dismiss capital murder charges against Willis. Jones ordered Willis' release Tuesday.
Loughlin praised both of the judges for making sure that justice was done.
"They were both devoted to the rule of law and principle," Loughlin said. "Obviously we are delighted because a man who is likely innocent is now free."
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