“There wasn’t a day that passed that I didn’t stay focused on gaining my freedom,” Mr. Williams told my colleague Thomas Fuller in March, when he was released from prison.

Friends and family were in the audience — including Korey Wise, one of the five men who as teenagers were wrongly convicted of the rape of a jogger in New York City and a subject of the Ava DuVernay Netflix series “When They See Us” — as well as members of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that assisted Mr. Williams with his exoneration. Mr. Williams performed “As,” a song about unconditional love and devotion that was written and made famous by Stevie Wonder .

“As joyous as today is, and it is an incredible moment, it’s amazing what he’s achieved in a few months to get here,” said Vanessa Potkin, the director of post-conviction litigation at the Innocence Project.

Since leaving Angola, Mr. Williams has moved to Oakland, Calif., and enrolled in college, taking computer classes and adjusting to his newfound freedom. “The day-to-day is still a struggle with life after imprisonment,” Ms. Potkin said.

But he may not stay in Cali forever, Mr. Williams said. He has a new dream.

“I loved New York. I haven’t experienced no thing better,” he said as he boarded his plane back to Oakland. “I might end up being a New Yorker.”

Mr. Williams’s next performance will be on Nov. 13 in the Amateur Night’s Show-Off Round.