A North Carolina man wrongfully accused of murder has finally been pardoned after 24 years.
Dontae Sharpe, received a life sentence in 1995 for the murder of George Radcliffe during a drug deal. He was only nineteen.
Sharpe had maintained his innocence throughout and said in a 2019 interview that his faith and knowledge he was innocent guided his refusal to accept offers of a lighter sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
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Sharpe’s conviction rested on the testimony of Charlene Johnson, a 15-year-old girl who said she saw him kill Radcliffe. She said that she saw Sharpe and another man put Radcliffe into a truck, then crash it in a vacant lot and dispose of the keys.
Sharpe unsuccessfully applied for a new trial until a former state medical examiner testified that the state’s theory of the shooting was not medically or scientifically possible.
However, Johnson recanted only weeks later, saying she wasn’t present at the shooting and that she made up claims based on what investigators told her.
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“I have carefully reviewed Montoyae Dontae Sharpe’s case and am granting him a Pardon of Innocence,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement.
“Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged.”
Sharpe was granted a full pardon by the state of North Carolina which will allow him to seek compensation of up to $750,000, and will help him rebuild his life.
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The NAACP had long pushed for Sharpe’s release. In recent months, racial justice groups have demanded the governor grant Sharpe the clemency needed in order to apply for compensation for his wrongful conviction.
They held vigils in front of Cooper’s state residence in downtown Raleigh for several weeks.
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“I’m still in a haze, kind of,” Sharpe said. “When you’re dealing with us human beings, it can go any way, yes and no. I didn’t know what to expect. I was believing for a pardon.”
Sharpe said he will continue to press for other inmates to receive justice.
“My freedom is still incomplete as long as there’s still people going to prison wrongfully, if there’s still people in prison wrongfully and there’s still people that are waiting on pardons,” he said.
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