A Black man walked free from a Georgia prison for the first time on Monday, just in time for Christmas.
Devonia Inman, now 43, spent 23 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
“I spent 23 years behind bars for something I didn’t do,” Inman said in a statement. “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.”
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office began reviewing the case in September 2019. The coronavirus pandemic slowed the investigation but an evidentiary hearing took place in July 2021.
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In November, a judge found that two of Inman’s constitutional rights had been violated. First, prosecution did not disclose evidence to Inman, thereby violating his right to due process. Second, Inman was deprived of effective assistance of counsel.
Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney Chase Studstill subsequently filed a motion to dismiss Inman’s charges. Chief Judge Clayton Tomlinson granted the motion on Monday and ordered Inman freed “as soon as possible,” and within hours the exonerated was walking out of the Augusta State Medical Prison.
Defense attorneys for Inman, convicted in 2001 in the 1998 robbery and shooting death of a Taco Bell manager in the south Georgia town of Adel, were not allowed by a judge to call a witness to testify that another man committed the crime.
The witness would have brought evidence showing the other man, Hercules Brown — who worked at the Taco Bell — committed and admitted to the manager’s murder.
