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Beacon Journal
By Nick Glunt
Beacon Journal staff writer
A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the sentence of 10 years to life in prison for a former Akron priest and lawyer convicted in 2008 of raping an 8-year-old boy.
Joseph Williams, 72, will remain behind bars at Mansfield Correctional Institution until at least October 2018, when he will go before a parole panel. Williams was convicted in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court on a charge of raping a child under age 13, and he appealed his case repeatedly until it reached a federal court.
In his latest appeal, Williams’ attorneys argue that previous attorneys who represented him were not effective at defending him. Specifically, they alleged previous attorneys should have attempted to find witnesses to support an alibi and brought psychiatric experts to the witness stand to speak of the alleged rape victim’s mental illnesses.
Sixth District U.S. Court of Appeals judges denied Williams’ appeal on Thursday, writing that he should have brought up those arguments to lower appellate courts rather than a federal court.
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