{"id":15375,"date":"2020-05-29T13:35:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T17:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=15375"},"modified":"2020-05-29T13:35:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T17:35:52","slug":"americas-got-talent-contestant-was-wrongly-incarcerated-says-prayer-got-him-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2020\/05\/americas-got-talent-contestant-was-wrongly-incarcerated-says-prayer-got-him-through.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018America&#8217;s Got Talent\u2019 Contestant Was Wrongly Incarcerated, Says Prayer Got Him Through"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Archie Williams, a contestant on &#8220;America&#8217;s Got Talent&#8221;, shared a powerful testimony during his last performance about the power of prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was arrested and incarcerated for 37 years for a crime that he didn&#8217;t commit. Despite a lack of evidence, he was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to life in prison at only 22 years old. He served the majority of his time in Angola state penitentiary, one of the deadliest prisons in America.<\/p>\n<p>Now at 59, he&#8217;s taking his life back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreedom is of the mind, I went to prison but I never let my mind go to prison,\u201d Williams told show host Terry Crews. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was really happening. I knew I was innocent. I didn\u2019t commit a crime. But being a poor black kid, I didn\u2019t have the economic ability to fight the state of Louisiana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that behind bars, he relied on faith and music to keep him strong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you&#8217;re faced with dark times, what I would do is I would pray and sing; this is how I got peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was finally given a shot for justice after the Innocence Project took on his case and found DNA evidence to help exonerate him.<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ShgOH1u78XA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archie Williams, a contestant on &#8220;America&#8217;s Got Talent&#8221;, shared a powerful testimony during his last performance about the power of prayer. Williams was arrested and incarcerated for 37 years for a crime that he didn&#8217;t commit. Despite a lack of evidence, he was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to life in prison at&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":15378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4341,4338],"class_list":["post-15375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-americas-got-talent","tag-archie-williams"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018America&#039;s Got Talent\u2019 Contestant Was Wrongly Incarcerated, Says Prayer Got Him Through<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archie Williams, a contestant on &quot;America&#039;s God Talent&quot;, said prayer helped him get through being in prison for 37 for a crime he didn&#039;t commit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2020\/05\/americas-got-talent-contestant-was-wrongly-incarcerated-says-prayer-got-him-through.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018America&#039;s Got Talent\u2019 Contestant Was Wrongly Incarcerated, Says Prayer Got Him Through\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archie Williams, a contestant on &quot;America&#039;s God Talent&quot;, said prayer helped him get through being in prison for 37 for a crime he didn&#039;t commit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2020\/05\/americas-got-talent-contestant-was-wrongly-incarcerated-says-prayer-got-him-through.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta 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