On the night of September 26, 1983, a woman identified as S.W. left a friend’s house in Dallas, Texas to walk to a bus stop. A man drove up to her and offered to drive her home. She accepted the offer and gave the man directions to her house. But he drove past the exit she had given and pulled out a pistol.
He then pulled off into a vacant lot and raped S.W. on the hood of his car. He raped her again in the backseat of the car. He then drove further down the road and sexually assaulted her a third time.
The man then drove her to a house where he unlocked the door and forced her inside and raped her again. While in the car on the way to the house, she committed two street names to memory and continued talking to him, agreeing not to tell the police. She convinced him to drive her to a friend’s house. She was able to run inside the house before the perpetrator got to the door. The man briefly stayed at the front door while the friend called the police, and then ran away.
S.W. gave the police numbers from the attacker’s license plate. She then drove with the police to the house she remembered as the location of the attack.
Police arrived about 3 a.m. and found a Chevy Impala parked in front of the house with a license plate only one digit different from S.W.’s memory. The car was registered to the father of 31-year-old Billy Wayne Miller. When police knocked on the door of the house, a woman let them in. Miller was asleep in the house. He was awakened and arrested after police concluded that Miller and a handgun in the room resembled the description given by S.W. of the attacker and his weapon.
S.W. was driven to the home and identified Miller as her attacker in a one-on-one showup. At the time of his arrest, Miller had been recently paroled after serving a prison sentence for robbery and assault to commit murder. He was working as a stone mason.
S.W. was taken to the hospital where a doctor performed a rape examination. Samples collected revealed the presence of spermatozoa.
Miller was charged with aggravated rape.
In February 1984, Miller went to trial in Dallas County District Court. S.W. identified Miller as the man who attacked her.
There were only two other prosecution witnesses. A physician testified that he examined S.W. and collected the rape kit. The arresting officer who said he found clothes in Miller’s home that matched the description given S.W.
On February 8, 1984, the jury convicted Miller of aggravated rape. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In September 1985, the Court of Appeals, Third Supreme Judicial District of Texas upheld Miller’s conviction and sentence.
Miller’s attorney began seeking DNA testing in 2001. An order for the testing was granted in 2005. The Texas Department of Public Safety conducted DNA testing on a vaginal swab from the rape kit in 2006. The lab reported that a male DNA profile was identified, and Miller was excluded as the source of the biological evidence.
Subsequently, Miller’s lawyer filed a petition in state court for a writ of habeas corpus. A Dallas County District Judge recommended that his conviction be vacated. On May 25, 2006, Miller was released from prison.
On October 25, 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated Miller’s conviction. On December 20, 2006, Texas Governor Rick Perry granted Miller a pardon based on innocence.
Miller was later awarded $500,000 in compensation plus a monthly annuity of $11,000.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 07-22-2026
