Cooper pardons wrongfully convicted Durham man

Gov. Roy Cooper granted a pardon of innocence Friday to a Durham man who spent more than 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Darryl Anthony Howard, 58, was convicted in 1995 on two counts of second-degree murder for the 1991 deaths of Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda.

But Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson overturned the conviction in 2016, ruling that DNA evidence that wasn't tested until 2010 implicated two other men in the crime and that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense during Howard's trial.

Durham County prosecutors later dismissed the charges against Howard.

"It is important to continue our efforts to reform the justice system and to acknowledge wrongful convictions," Cooper said in a statement.

The pardon makes Howard eligible to file a claim under a North Carolina law that allows compensation to persons wrongly convicted of felonies.