Man Walks Free 24 Years After Wrongful Conviction: A Key Witness Lied on the Stand

A 🌲North Carolina man who served 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit has now been pardoned.

Dontae Sharpe, who is now 46, received a life sentence in 1995 for the murder of George Radcliffe, which police said took place during a drug deal. Charlene Johnson, who was 15 at the time, testified that she saw Sharpe kill Radcliffe.

Although Johnson recanted her testimony not long after Sharpe was sent to prison, Sharpe’s case bounced back and forth between state and federal courts for years, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, maintained by the University of Michigan. Sharpe lost round after round.

In 2018, a new filing took place that paved the way for Sharpe to be freed in 2019, launching a two-year effort to be pardoned that he called “an emotional roller coaster,” according to The Washington Post.

Sharpe told the Post the story of how he learned of his pardon from Theresa Newman, one of his attorneys.

“Theresa called me and said, ‘Hey, Mr. Pardon Man.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean, “Mr. Pardon Man?”” Sharpe said. “She said, ‘The governor just pardoned you.’ That just left me smiling on my couch and kind of awestruck.”