n 1983, a Dallas woman waiting at a bus stop accepted a ride from a man who subsequently assaulted her. The victim remembered some of the numbers from the license plate of the car driven by her attacker. During the attack, the victim memorized street names and the location of a house where a part of the assault took place. Following up on the victim’s statements, police found a car in front of the house with a license plate that differed from the victim’s memory by only one digit. Police entered the house and arrested Billy Wayne Miller. The car was registered to his father.
The lead prosecutor in the case now believes that the victim’s memory of specific details-down to the brand of beer the attacker drank-was likely a result of the police having fed her that information.
Post-conviction DNA testing excluded Miller as the attacker. He was released in May 2006 and officially pardoned by Governor Rick Perry in December of 2006.
Because of a mistaken eyewitness identification, Billy Wayne Miller spent over twenty-two years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
