US2 min(s) read
Published 13:13 24 Dec 2021 GMT
A Georgia man who spent 23 years behind bars for a 1998 murder has finally been exonerated and freed.
Devonia Inman, now 43, was serving a life without parole sentence for a 1998 robbery and murder of a Taco Bell manager in southern Georgia. However, according to his advocates, the Georgia Innocence Project, DNA evidence linked another person to the crime.
The Georgia Innocence Project states that no physical evidence tied Inman to the case, and three of the four witnesses in his trial later recounted their testimonies saying they had been pressured or coerced by police.
During the 1998 murder, the manager of a Taco Bell restaurant in Adel, Georgia, was robbed and shot dead in the parking lot of the establishment. The killer took $1,700 and the victim's car - which was later found abandoned nearby by police, with a handmade ski mask inside.
Per the New York Post, further DNA testing later concluded that Hercules Brown, a convicted killer, was the rightful suspect in the case.
Brown's DNA was found on the ski mask inside the victim's car. The judge in the retrial also concluded last month that prosecutors had originally withheld evidence connecting Hercules Brown to the crime, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
As Inman spent two years awaiting trial, Brown went one to kill two other people. He is currently in prison for those crimes.
Inman was finally set free after 23 years after the local DA reportedly dismissed all charges, with state officials opting not to appeal the ruling. He walked free from the Augusta State Medical Prison on Monday.
Following his freedom, Inman said: "It took a really long time to fix, even though it was so clear I wasn't guilty."
"I'm glad I get to finally go home, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped make that possible," he added.
In a statement to the Georgia Innocence Project, Inman's legal team from Troutman Pepper said: "We are elated to see Devonia and his family finally obtain the justice that so many have fought for so long to secure."
"We are privileged to have played a part in his long-overdue exoneration, and to work at a firm committed to critically important pro bono matters like this," the lawyers added.
Due to the fact that Georgia is one of 13 states that does not currently have a statutory compensation law to assist those wrongfully convicted, the GIP has set up a fundraiser to help Inman and his family. As of this writing, over $12,000 has been raised.
.webp_vBqgAR?tr=cr-242.0.1293.1051,f-webp,q-70,w-100)