Danny Wilber, 44, an Afro-Indigenous man enrolled at the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, fought for post-conviction relief after spending nearly 18 years in Wisconsin prison for first-degree intentional homicide, a crime he was able to prove he didn’t commit. A federal judge granted his petition for habeas corpus, and he was released from prison on Dec. 22, 2021, pending the state’s appeal, with his case being dismissed on May 27, 2022. His claim for wrongful conviction was denied by the Wisconsin Claims Board in July 2024, but his federal civil rights claim was settled by the Milwaukee Common Council on May 13, 2025 for $7 million, the second largest in Milwaukee’s history. Photo of Danny Wilber at the Wisconsin State Capitol on December 4, 2022 courtesy of Lacey Kinnart.
By Darren Thompson
MILWAUKEE—On May 13, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $6.96 million settlement for the wrongful conviction of an Afro-Indigenous man who spent 18 years in prison.
Danny Wilber, an Oneida Nation of Wisconsin citizen, was convicted for first-degree intentional murder in Milwaukee County for an incident that occurred in Jan. 2004. The wrongful conviction settlement is the second largest in Milwaukee’s history, and is the result of a federal lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee and nine former Milwaukee police officers alleged to have violated Wilber’s constitutional rights.
“The Milwaukee Police Department knew Danny Wilber was innocent—and they framed him anyway," said Lacey Kinnart, Wilber’s partner for more than a decade, in an interview with the LRI Native News Desk. “The Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office had physical evidence proving his innocence and still spent years fighting to keep him in a cage. This wasn’t a failure of justice—it was a full-scale, intentional cover-up.”
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