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FIGHT FOR FREEDOM: Wrongfully convicted Tulsan faces more hurdles

By: Erin Christy

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TULSA, Okla. — After a judge vacated his 1991 rape conviction in July of 2024, William Henry Jamerson is expected to learn whether the courts will allow him to be removed early from the sex offender registry.

This hurdle is the latest in a 30-year saga but not the last.

Jamerson served his 24-year sentence and was released in 2015, but fought ever since to clear his name.

“You know most people who get out of prison, leave it alone,” he said. “I ain’t that type.”

Jamerson said, at one point, he could have gotten out of prison early but couldn’t bring himself to accept the terms of parole, which included admitting guilt.

“They’re going to say you did it, you gotta get on that sex offender thing for a long time, then you have to report every other week and all that,” he said. “I can’t do that.”

Years after his conviction, DNA technology advanced. Jamerson fought from prison to get the rape kit tested. However, the Tulsa Police Department, for decades, told Jamerson it had been destroyed.

Jamerson was not convinced. Upon release, he hired attorney Dan Smolen, who fought the courts for seven years to prove the rape kit still existed.

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“God brought me to him,” Jamerson said of Smolen. “You don’t find a lot of people like him.”

In a rare move, a judge finally agreed to allow Smolen to search the TPD property room — himself. Hours later, the proverbial pot of gold was discovered.

They found slides from the rape kit and later sent away to be tested. In July, the results of the test excluded Jamerson as the source and his conviction was tossed.

“Being locked in a cage for decades for something you had nothing to do with and no one being willing to listen to you the whole time,” said Smolen. “Your DNA exists knowing there is scientific technology to test it and they are simply lying that is has been destroyed—it’s absolutely disgusting.”

The fight is not over. Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler is appealing.

“It is very simple to look at the facts of what happened to him and how his life was ruined and say, you know what Mr. Jamerson, we are so sorry this happened to you,” said Smolen. “But they don’t have the capability to do that.”

Jamerson just wants to move on with his life.

“I’m tired of it now,” he said.

The Nov. 12 hearing comes days after Tulsa police officers briefly jailed Jamerson for failure to register as a sex offender, which is a felony---then let go hours later, with only a parking citation.

Jail records show he was released after officers arrested the “wrong defendant.” Smolen thinks the department is simply covering up a false arrest and looks at the incident as just another example of Tulsa police harassing Jamerson.

Read more about Friday’s arrest incident, as well as a statement from the TPD, here: