Archie Williams served 37 years for a rape and stabbing he didn't commit. Thanks to the persistence and hard work of Innocence Project Litigation Director Vanessa Plotkin, the Louisiana Innocence Project, and Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck , Archie was freed from prison in 2019 when fingerprint evidence in an FBI database proved him innocent and identified the real perpetrator -- a serial rapist, now long deceased. What took so long? For years, Louisiana's state laws provided barriers to inmates' requests to access untested evidence for innocence claims, and many other procedural hurdles. The I.P. began working on Archie's case in 1996.

In the video above, watch Archie fulfill his dream of singing on the big stage, during a recent episode of "America's Got Talent". The audience response and response of the judges, including Simon Cowell, is wonderful to watch.

After learning about Archie and the Innocence Project, Barry confirmed that Simon has signed on to be an Ambassador for the project. [More...]