Hilary Swank's Next Movie Based on Law Student's Fight to Exonerate Brother
A high-school dropout and single mother who was inspired to get her high school equivalency diploma and put herself through college and law school by her brother’s 1983 murder conviction will be played by actress Hilary Swank in an upcoming movie.
The woman whose true story will be portrayed in Betty Anne Waters worked as a waitress to pursue her dream of helping her brother win his case on appeal, reports Agence France-Presse, based on a Daily Variety report.
While still in law school at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, Betty Anne Waters began investigating her brother’s case and persuaded attorney Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project in New York to take it on, reports a Harvard Law School web page biography of Waters prepared as part of a panel presentation on wrongful convictions.
A Massachusetts court eventually approved DNA testing on blood samples in a box of evidence that she located, which cast doubt on his conviction.
Kenneth Waters was freed in 2001. Before prosecutors had decided whether to retry him, he died in a fall later that year, reports the Associated Press.
Additional coverage:
Boston Globe (2001): “After 18 years in prison, ‘It’s great to be free’”
