Kinston man pardoned for 1992 life sentence
For Howard Dudley, the next best thing after he walked out of prison as a free man in 2016 was having his name officially cleared.
On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper granted him a pardon of innocence.
“I was almost in tears,” Dudley said. “It was an exciting day, very exciting.”
Dudley was convicted in 1992 and was serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting his 9-year-old daughter, who later recanted her testimony and said several times in the past that she lied about the alleged assault.
Prosecutors in 1992 never presented any physical evidence of an assault, but still, Dudley was sent behind bars.
Dudley’s request to have his name cleared took five years after he was released from prison in 2016.
“You submit the request for the pardon of innocence and you wait,” Duke Law lawyer Jamie Lau told WITN News. “And you don’t really get updates, you don’t know what’s going on, you just hope that one day you’ll receive the phone call that we received yesterday morning indicating that the pardon of innocence has been granted.”
Dudley hopes that the state will do more to free other men who who wrongfully convicted.
