Victim Impact Statement - The Reid Family 
By: Charlotte Williams

It was when Reid lost on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in December 2004, that Williams and her mother (this writer) began an ongoing cordial relationship with his parents, James and Melvina. A three-judge panel had just unanimously affirmed the District Court's dismissal of his federal habeas corpus petition.

Just like with the Bennetts, this writer also wanted to know from the Reids what kind of impact their son’s false arrest, wrongful conviction and unjust incarceration has had on their family? Their answer follows:

Reid’s septuagenarian father became bitter towards him and wrote him off.  On top of that, he didn’t even attend his son’s trial or lend support of any kind up until when Reid Advocate Williams entered the picture. Why? because in his mind, his son had disobeyed one of his admonishments, which was to never be in the company of anyone in possession of a gun.

To this day, Reid maintains that he was unaware that Dwayne was carrying a gun. Williams has since gotten his seventy (ish)–year-old father to soften his position and open up the lines of communication with his son. Now convinced of his son’s innocence, the articulate senior occasionally visits him.

With the exception of Reid’s mother Melvina, sustained family support for her son from siblings and other relatives dwindled to nothing as time went by, says the family matriarch. Continuing, the well-spoken woman explained how she had taken out loans against her already-paid-for house to help pay for her son’s legal defense over the years and is now drowning in debt.

Reid, who like her husband is also in her seventies, was diagnosed in 2006 with breast cancer and was treated with chemo and radiation therapy. Sadly, she would learn in July 2007 that her cancer never went into remission. On March 17, 2008, she lost her fight.  Before she took her last breath, advocate Williams told this writer that she whispered into Reid’s ear that she would continue to fight for justice for Giovanni.

(Interview took place in 2007)