Willie Earl Vereen, one of the Wilmington Ten, passed away on Saturday, May 25.
The Wilmington Ten were 10 activists who were imprisoned for almost 10 years after being falsely convicted of firebombing a store and shooting at firefighters in Wilmington in 1971, per The National Registry of Exonerations. A federal Court of Appeals reversed the convictions in 1980 after it was revealed the prosecution hid the fact that two key witnesses admitted to falsely accusing them.
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Besides Vereen, the Ten also includes Wayne Moore, Ann Shepard, James McKoy, Marvin Patrick, Reginald Epps, Jerry Jacobs, Connie Tindall, William Wright and Rev. Benjamin Chavis Jr.
Vereen died at 5:30 a.m. while in hospice care; he had been on dialysis for years and was diagnosed with liver cancer about two months earlier.
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