Man Freed After 21 Years Of Wrongful Conviction

On Wednesday a North Carolina man, Darryl Howard, was freed after a judge tossed his conviction in a double-murder case of 1995.

Howard’s prosecutor was expelled for telling lies in the Duke University lacrosse rape case.

Darryl Howard’s release came in the wake of insufficient evidence. The judge had to dismiss the murder case because the DNA evidence to be used for the trial wasn’t yet available.

Mike Nifong, the former district attorney in the Duke, case was expected to explain to the court how he arrived at his verdict in 1995. Nifong was to admit or dismiss in court whether the misconduct from the police and prosecutors made him convict the innocent man. The prosecutors discarded the conviction and let Howard walk out as a free man after 21 years.

Darryl Howard expressed his excitement in the courtroom by saying, “There’s no time to be angry, I’m thankful this is over and I can move on with my life and do other things. I’m just happy right now.”

Howard walked out of the courtroom a happy man and thanked his wife, whom he married 3 years after his conviction, for pursuing the case.

Howard was convicted of strangling and sexual assault of 29-year-old Doris Washington and Nishonda, her 13-year-old daughter. All physical evidence and DNA proved otherwise, Howard was innocent of the crimes leveled against him.

This is a flagrant example of injustice against a Black person coupled with police misconduct, lies, alleged tampering with the evidence and, lastly, a wrongful conviction.

Now the police will be busy searching for the real criminal. But what about Mike Nifong? Maybe if the punishment for such intended wrongful conviction was serving the term, given to the victim, less Black people would go to jail.

Original report here


(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today. Now hosted on Wordpress.  If you cannot access it, go to the MIRROR SITE, where  posts  appear as well as on  the primary site.  I have reposted  the archives (past posts) for Wicked Thoughts  HERE or HERE