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More coverage of Dwayne Dail exoneration in North Carolina
Posted: August 29, 2007 12:46 pm
Dwayne Allen Dail was exonerated yesterday in North Carolina, making him the 207th person freed by DNA testing nationwide. Read and watch today’s media coverage of his case here.
Tags: Dwayne Dail
North Carolina compensation law still lags behind national standard
Posted: August 30, 2007 10:42 am
Dwayne Dail was exonerated on Tuesday in Goldsboro, N.C., and his attorney Chris Mumma (the director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence) has said Dail will seek a pardon from the governor and compensation under the state statute, which provides $20,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. North Carolina is one of 22 states with laws providing for exoneree compensation, but the amount provided by the state lags behind the standard of up to $50,000 per year set by the federal government.
Texas lawmakers passed a law this year increasing exoneree compensation from $25,000 per year to $50,000 per year. The Innocence Project supports this reform.
How does your state stack up? View a map of compensation laws by state.
Read more about exoneree compensation.
Tags: North Carolina, Dwayne Dail, Exoneree Compensation
First day of freedom for Dwayne Dail
Posted: August 30, 2007 11:02 am
In his first full day as a free man, Dwayne Allen Dail spent time with family and talked with reporters about the 18 years he spent behind bars for a 1987 North Carolina rape he didn’t commit. He became the 207th person exonerated by DNA testing on Tuesday after a judge dismissed the charges against him. Evidence from his case believed for years to be destroyed was located recently in a closet at the Goldsboro, N.C. police department. Testing on the evidence proved another man had committed the attack on a 12-year-old girl for which Dail was serving life in prison.
"I never thought I could be convicted, I thought if you didn’t do anything, then you have nothing to worry about," Dail told reporters yesterday.And the prosecutor in the case said yesterday "it was every prosecutor's nightmare that you somehow participated in putting an innocent man in jail." Read the full story here. (WRAL, 08/29/07)
Watch a video interview with Dail and his son here. (WRAL, 08/30/2007)
More media coverage of the case:
Editorial: The wrong man… (The News & Observer, 08/30/2007)
Tags: Dwayne Dail
New North Carolina innocence inquiry panel gets to work
Posted: September 12, 2007 4:09 pm
The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission was created last year to review possible wrongful convictions and refer cases to a three-judge panel for potential appeal. The eight-member commission is the only group of its kind in the U.S., and it has recently begun its substantative work. The group will have three full-time staff members and is currently investigating three cases, two of which may involve post-conviction DNA testing. The commission has received requests from 200 inmates seeking to have their cases reviewed.
And other major reforms aimed at preventing wrongful convictions in North Carolina are also set to take effect. At the end of August, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed three significant criminal justice reform bills into law. The new laws will create statewide standards for police lineups, require recording of police interrogations and strengthen the requirement the law enforcement agencies preserve biological evidence from crime scenes.
Recording interrogations has enormous benefits for both defendants and the police, said Chris Mumma, the executive director of the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence, which coordinates efforts by the state’s law schools to help the wrongfully convicted. Defendants get added protection, and police get the ability to review the interrogation tapes to get more information.Last month, Dwayne Allen Dail was released from prison in North Carolina after DNA testing proved that he did not commit the rape for which he was serving life in prison. Dail was represented by Chris Mumma at the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence. Read more about Dail’s case here.
Mumma said that over 500 law-enforcement departments across the country are recording interrogations in some or all of their criminal investigations.
"They have reported that they would never go back,” she said.
Read the full story here. (Winston-Salem Journal, 09/10/07)
Download the full text of the new criminal justice reform laws in North Carolina:
- HB 1625 (Eyewitness Identification)
- HB 1626 (Recording of Custodial Interrogation)
- HB 1500 (Access to DNA Testing)
Tags: Dwayne Dail, Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
North Carolina man receives governor's pardon
Posted: October 12, 2007 2:45 pm
Dwayne Dail, who was exonerated in August after serving 18 years in North Carolina prison for a rape he didn’t commit, received a pardon from Gov. Mike Easley this week, proclaiming his innocence of the crime. The pardon makes Dail, who has since moved to Florida, eligible under the state’s compensation statute to receive $20,000 for each year he was incarcerated.
Dail learned of the pardon this week from his attorney Chris Mumma, the director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence. Dail said he plans to to start pursuing an education in collecting and preserving crime scene evidence.
"I'm impatient," Dail said. "I'm trying to catch up on every day I've lost. I've been antsy sitting still."Read more about Dwayne Dail’s case here.
Dail, 19, a day laborer when he entered prison, left it without health insurance, without a job and without a degree that might help him secure a good one.
"We open the doors and say, 'You're out. That's it,' " Mumma said. "I'm embarrassed that all we can offer him is $20,000 a year for all he's been through."
Read the full story here. (The News & Observer, 10/11/07)
North Carolina is one of 22 states with a state law compensating exonerated individuals. View our map to see if your state has a compensation law.
Tags: Dwayne Dail
North Carolina man will receive $370K for 18 years in prison
Posted: January 25, 2008 4:40 pm
The state of North Carolina will pay Dwayne Dail just under $370,000 to compensate him for the 18 years he was wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. That amounts to about $20,000 for each year he served. North Carolina is one of 22 states in the country with a compensation law, but many – like North Carolina – don’t meet the federal standard of up to $50,000 per year served.
"There has to be laws written that (do) not excuse shoddy police work," Dail said. "The $20,000 a year is insulting. It' just not right -- no amount of money's going to make it right."Does your state have a compensation law? View our interactive reform map to find out.
Read the full story here. (Goldsboro News-Argus, 01/25/08)
Tags: North Carolina, Dwayne Dail, Exoneree Compensation
New Innocence Project video: Dwayne Dail
Posted: May 2, 2008 2:10 pm
North Carolina exoneree Dwayne Dail describes how he lost half his life for a crime he didn’t commit.
“I didn’t realize that my life was going to be cut off at 20,” Dail says.
Click the link below to watch a three-minute video interview with Dwayne.
Watch more videos and learn about other exonerees who were arrested between the ages of 14 and 22.
Dwayne Dail Interview [video: 3:12]
Tags: Dwayne Dail
New suspect in North Carolina rape
Posted: May 6, 2008 4:10 pm
A North Carolina man was indicted yesterday in the 1987 rape for which Dwayne Dail spent nearly two decades in prison. Dail was wrongfully convicted of raping a 12-year-old in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1989 and freed last year when DNA testing proved that semen recovered from the victim’s nightgown did not match Dail’s DNA profile. Dail had been told for years that the evidence was lost before his lawyers at the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence found the evidence in a police station closet.
Yesterday, prosecutors charged William Neal with committing the 1987 crime, saying the semen recovered from the victim’s nightgown matched Neal’s DNA profile. Neal is serving time in prison for another conviction.
Read the full story here. (News-Observer, 05/05/08)
Watch a new Innocence Project video interview with Dwayne Dail.
Tags: Dwayne Dail
Children of the Exonerated
Posted: June 5, 2008 4:22 pm
Today on the ‘Young People For’ blog, Innocence Project intern Vincent Pullara, Jr. writes that wrongful convictions don’t only inflict suffering on the innocent defendant and the victims of the crime, but also on their families – especially their children.
Imagining the life of a child of an exoneree is extremely troubling. America has already produced a whole generation of fatherless children. But when you relate the number of wrongful convictions in this country to the number of fatherless children, you start to wonder about another scary number—how big is the generation of fatherless children as a result of wrongful convictions?
That is the story of Dwayne Allen Dail’s son, who was born the same year his father was convicted in North Carolina of a rape he didn’t commit. Dail was exonerated by DNA testing in 2007, and released close to his son’s 18th birthday. The Charlotte Observer had the following quote from Dail’s son, then 18-year-old Chris Michaels. "He's missed my whole life. ... I missed him all the time growing up," Michaels said. "He's here now -- and that's all that matters."
Read Vincent’s full post here. (YP4 blog, 06/05/08)
Tags: Dwayne Dail, Luis Diaz, Walter Swift
North Carolina lawmakers seek to improve exoneree compensation
Posted: June 25, 2008 3:50 pm
A bill pending before the North Carolina House of Representatives would increase the compensation paid to exonerees by the state to $50,000 per year served, from $20,000. The proposed bill would also extend services to exonerees – an essential facet of bills helping the exonerated rebuild their lives. It includes provisions for free tuition at state universities and community colleges and a year of job training. The compensation paid to exonerees would be capped at $750,000.
Dwayne Dail was exonerated last year after serving 18 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. He received $370,000 in compensation.
"I can take this day and start my life now," Dail said the day he was released. "Today is the first day of the rest of my life and I'm absolutely going to make the most of it."Watch a video interview with Dail here.
Read the full story here. (News 14 Carolina, 06/25/08)
Exoneree compensation bills have gained momentum in several states in recent weeks - read more here.
Tags: Dwayne Dail, Exoneree Compensation
North Carolina improves exoneree compensation
Posted: August 7, 2008 3:40 pm
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley this week signed a bill greatly improving the compensation and services the state provides to the wrongfully convicted after their release. The new law, effective immediately, increases the compensation paid to the exonerated from $20,000 per year served to $50,000 per year. The maximum payment is $750,000. The new law also provides job training and free tuition to state colleges and universities.
25 states have exoneree compensation laws. What’s the law in your state? Find out here.
Pictured: Dwayne Dail served 18 years in North Carolina prison for a crime he didn't commit before his exoneration last year. He received $370,000 in compensation earlier this year, but will now be eligible for an additional $380,000. Dail was featured this week in an article on Officer.com, a news magazine for law enforcement professionals. Read the article, entitled “When the Innocent Become Victims,” here.
Tags: Dwayne Dail, Exoneree Compensation
One year free, and a new life begun
Posted: August 28, 2008 5:20 pmOne year ago today, Dwayne Dail walked out of a North Carolina prison and into his family’s arms. Dail served 18 years for a child rape he didn’t commit, before his attorneys at the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence discovered biological evidence from his case stored in a police department closet. For years, Dail had written and appealed to everyone he could think of – and even asked to be executed at one point. “I wanted the state of North Carolina to be responsible for my murder and not just another inmate,” he said. Finally he found the NCCAI, whose work led to his release.
Today he lives in Florida with relatives, and he was recently compensated by the state of North Carolina – which improved its compensation statute this month to bring it in line with federal standards of $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration.
Watch a video interview with Dail after his release.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Monday: Lonnie Erby, Missouri (Served 17 Years, Exonerated 8/25/03)
Tuesday: Barry Laughman, Pennsylvania (Served 16 Years, Exonerated 08/26/04)
Eddie Joe Lloyd, Michigan (Served 17 Years, Exonerated 08/26/02)
Today: Bruce Nelson, Pennsylvania (Served 9 Years, Exonerated 08/28/91)
Tags: Dwayne Dail, Lonnie Erby, Barry Laughman, Eddie Joe Lloyd, Bruce Nelson
One Man Seeks Freedom, and Another Adjusts to It
Posted: September 30, 2009 3:24 pm
A North Carolina man exonerated through DNA testing in 2007 spoke yesterday on the steps of a Raleigh courthouse in support of another man seeking his freedom. He then sat down with reporters and spoke about the challenges he has faced in adjusting to life after exoneration.
Dwayne Dail served 18 years in North Carolina prisons for a rape he didn’t commit before DNA testing obtained by the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence proved him innocent. He was freed in 2007, and said yesterday that the adjustment has been difficult.
"The hardest part is to just put one foot in front of the other and move in the free world as a free man," he said. "It's difficult."Dail was in Raleigh yesterday to support efforts on behalf of Greg Taylor, who has served more than 16 years in North Carolina prisons for a murder he says he didn’t commit. The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission found unanimously this month that evidence in Taylor’s case points to his innocence. A judge will now review the commission’s findings.
Watch video of Dail at the rally. (WRAL)
The Charlotte Observer published a profile of Taylor on Saturday, and he said he’s beginning to prepare himself for release.
He's not sure how to begin again. He is almost the age his parents were when he went into prison."I don't know what 47 is, I only know what 31 is," Taylor said. "I think I want to go home and be invisible for a while."
Tags: Dwayne Dail