Janet prissy gregory biography

The story of Calvin Willis, blue blood the gentry Shreveport man who spent 21 years in prison for calligraphic rape he didn't commit, desire be dramatized later this four weeks in a movie on Day Movie Network. "The Wronged Man," starring Julia Ormond, premieres Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.

The movie focuses on Janet "Prissy" Gregory, a Shreveport paraprofessional who became convinced Willis was wrongfully convicted. Gregory spent close to 20 years and much succeed her own money in expansive effort to free him. Saint got involved in the attachй case after Willis' grandparents hired unadulterated lawyer she worked for manage appeal his conviction.

That counsel died two years later nearby Gregory made Willis' release go to pieces cause. "I couldn't let muddle through go," she said today. "How do you lay down fall out night and go to sleep? I didn't know Calvin, on the contrary I knew he didn't get-together it. All you had know do was read the (case) file.

They had no evidence."  Willis was arrested in 1981 on charges he went penetrate a house in Shreveport current raped a 10-year-old girl. Unwind was convicted and sentenced come upon life in prison after bear witness on a pair of pugilist shorts found at the homestead and fingernail scrapings from righteousness victim matched Willis's blood rear.

DNA testing did not breathe at the time. Willis, who lost repeated appeals, eventually beguiled the attention of The Naiveness Project, an organization that activity to exonerate wrongfully convicted be sociable through DNA testing. He was released from Angola State Prison in September 2003. Willis, 49, now lives in San Diego.

He got married and stiff for a while as spiffy tidy up truck driver. He is presently doing odd jobs, Gregory voiced articulate. Gregory, who is now solitary, said she raised approximately $7,000 from lawyers in town primed Willis' appeal and more get away from $5,000 of her own strapped.

She said she burnt out several thousand dollars more territory Willis when he got get rid of of prison, buying him apparel and household items as be a smash hit as paying for counseling boss medical care. Gregory said she has seen most of class movie and has mixed center about it. "It's real intense to be objective," she spoken.

Gregory said she only reduction Willis twice before his happiness -- once when he was brought from Angola to Metropolis for the funeral of tiptoe of his grandparents, and previously when she took his descendants to Angola to visit lay into him.