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Vindicated after 21 years

A North Carolina man was freed from jail Wednesday after a judge tossed his conviction in a double-murder case tried 21 years ago by the prosecutor who was later disbarred for lying and misconduct in the Duke University lacrosse rape case.

The judge threw out the convictions and ordered Darryl Howard's release because of DNA evidence unavailable at Howard's 1995 murder trial.

The former district attorney in the Duke case, Mike Nifong, had been expected to testify Wednesday afternoon about his handling of Howard's case and whether misconduct from police and prosecutors helped win a conviction. But prosecutors decided not to appeal the judge's order tossing the conviction, which meant Nifong did not have to take the stand and cleared the way for Howard to be freed.

"There's no time to be angry," Howard said in the courtroom. "I'm thankful this is over and I can move on with my life and do other things. I'm just happy right now."

He later left the jail hand-in-hand with his wife, Nannie, whom he married three years after he was imprisoned. Howard credited her with pursuing lawyers who work on wrongful conviction cases; his conviction and 80-year sentence was eventually taken up by the New York-based Innocence Project. Howard said they look forward to building a life together.

"The journey has been long, but we made it," Nannie Howard said, adding she's finally able to hug her husband without restraints on his arms. "We have a lifetime of memories to create and do things that we haven't had a chance to do, so we're looking for that next great chapter."

Howard was convicted of the 1991 strangling and sexual assault of 29-year-old Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda. But DNA evidence shows Howard did not rape the women, and no other physical evidence connected him to the crime. Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson said Wednesday that evidence would have created a reasonable doubt for jurors.

Hudson said prosecutors would have to retry Howard, who was convicted based heavily on the testimony of witnesses at the Durham public housing project where the slayings occurred, or drop the case.



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