john nolley was exonerated of murder after 21 years.
the fair and just decision took place at a court hearing in fort worth, texas yesterday attended by nolley, his family, his legal team, and representatives from the district attorney's office and bedford police department.
tarrant county criminal district attorney sharen wilson filed legal papers on wednesday before judge louis sturns to dismiss 1997 murder charges against nolley based on actual evidence. judge sturns granted the motion, and nolley's innocence became legalized.
nolley served 19 years of a life sentence before he was released on bond in 2016. in may 2018, the texas court of criminal appeals decided his 1998 conviction should be overturned - critical evidence had been withheld from his lawyers. but the original charges remained pending until prosecutors' actions october 3.
"today marks the end of an incredibly painful journey for john nolley, who served 19 years for a murder he didn't commit. yet this day would not have come without the extraordinary work and dedication of district attorney wilson and her conviction integrity unit, as well as the detectives in the bedford police department, who put hundreds of hours into a joint effort to re-investigate this case and seek the truth," said nina morrison, staff attorney with the innocent project.
in july 2015, just months after taking office, wilson agreed to re-investigate nolley's case through her office's newly formed conviction integrity unit (ciu). the ciu collaborated with the innocence project and fort worth attorney regan wynn in the 1996 murder of sharon mclane.
nolley is black. mclane is white.
since the investigation began, the district attorney's office spoke with over 70 witnesses. prosecutors and the innocence project conducted over 100 forensic tests, including dna and latent print analyses. the complete results are not publicly available while law enforcement pursue other suspects. "i do not have any resentment toward anyone at this point," said nolley.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
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