Legal Battle Ends in Williams Case : Atlanta to Release Files on 21 Slayings of Blacks

City officials on Thursday ended a months-long legal battle and complied with a judge’s order to release secret police files in 21 slayings of young blacks that were blamed on Wayne Williams.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Luther Alverson had ordered the files released by noon Thursday to three news organizations that had sued seeking access to them. City attorneys had said they might appeal, but Public Safety Commissioner George Napper announced at noon that the city would comply with the order.

Napper said the files would be released only to the organizations that joined the suit. Others seeking the files must submit written requests, he said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV and ABC News went to court last year to force the city to release files on the 24 slayings blamed on Williams. They were among 29 slayings of young blacks that terrorized Atlanta between 1979 and 1981; five cases officially remain unsolved.

Williams, a black free-lance photographer, is appealing his murder convictions and life sentences in two of the killings. Police blamed 22 other slayings on him after his 1982 trial, but no formal charges were filed in those cases.

Two Files Already Released

The files of two victims, 13-year-old Clifford Jones and 12-year-old Charles Stephens, were released in December and January on orders from Alverson. Police have said another file, that of victim Terry Pue, is missing.

The judge ruled on July 17 that the city must make public the case files of the 21 other cases. The city had asked Alverson to reconsider that order, but the judge refused after a hearing Wednesday.

Alverson rejected arguments from Assistant City Atty. Roy Mays that disclosure of the case files would result in incomplete and possibly inaccurate reports in the news media, since information in other files related to the case might contradict the case files.

Napper told reporters Thursday there is nothing in the files to make police believe they charged the wrong man and that the department is satisfied about Williams’ guilt.

Williams’ attorney, Bobby Lee Cook Sr., said he is anxious “to take a deep look” at the files to see what they contain.

“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Cook said. “Obviously, there’s something of interest in them.”