Experts Debate 1983 Atlanta Murders

Wayne B. Williams, who was convicted in the so-called Atlanta Child Murders case nearly three years ago, may not have received a fair trial, his former attorney told a capacity crowd at Ames Courtroom last night.

Speaking at a Law School Forum on the "Atlanta Child Murders," the title of an upcoming CBS docudrama based on the case, attorney Alvin Binder presented lengthy arguments that unfair evidence was brought against Williams when he was convicted of killing two men in 1983.

Improper Indictment

A grand jury improperly brought an indictment against Williams. Binder said, because autopsies of his alleged victims did not show murder to be the cause of death.

Binder further blasted the state's use of fiber evidence linking Williams to his victims. He also criticized the court's allowance of "pattern" evidence, in which Williams was linked to the deaths of 10 children even though he was only charged with the murder of two adults.

"I never saw a pattern," Binder said. "But once they got the knife in, they knew how to rip us apart."

Segments of "The Atlanta Child Murders" were shown to the audience, and Abby Mann, author of the docudrama, defended himself against growing nationwide charges that his admittedly "fictionalized" account of the trial is skewed towards Williams' defense.

Mann, the self-proclaimed "Father of the Docudrama," said. "If I erred at all, it was on the other side," He added. "The picture wasn't done to attack the status quo."

Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz, who moderated the program, later quipped. "Keep attacking the status quo."

The four attorneys who prosecuted Williams were invited to the Forum, but all declined to attend.

Binder, an elderly man with a slow Southern drawl, told Dershowitz at one point that he had come only because he could "meet a person like you [Dershowitz] I've seen on the tube so much."