the future of dontae s life. eat. a pardon is a technical term. it can only come from the governor in north carolina and it is the only way to get a determination by the state that you are innocent and it is the only way to get compensated. you get a very small amount of money in comparison to what has been taken away from you, but it s that stability that allows you to be able to build a new life. can i get my pardon? can i get my freedom? something that was given to me by god that you mistakenly took from me? he is not asking for the state of north carolina to apologise. he s asking for the state of north carolina to acknowledge
the reality of seeing him have to do that over and over again while the system failed, it. it broke me. you re hurting and you re losing faith and hope in humanity. sometimes. . .i just hollered out sometimes. i d just be, like. he screams god! isaid, man, nothing, man. nothing, man. all: free dontae sharpe! this morning, i come out for my son, montoya dontae sharpe. first, there was- no physical evidence. secondly, there were l false witness accounts. there were likely alternative suspects ignored and not pursued, so while dontae was locked up, - the real killer was still-
who, tragically, is harmed, we see greater penalties associated and we see greater instances of wrongful convictions related to those crimes. dontae being a black man in greenville, north carolina in the 1990s was central to why he was convicted and central to why his conviction was not overturned sooner. every time i went to court, it was a white man over me, i was in a black and white case. racism was part of the reason why they went so hard they tried to solve it and get somebody and it happened to be a black and a white. it wasn t until trial that he knew what the evidence was that was going to be used against him. no physical evidence, no fingerprints, no hairfibre, no nothing. not of me. not mine. nothing. nothing on the scene, period.
i had to make a wilful choice was i going to act like a lifer or was i going to grow up, mature and use the situation to better myself? and the first step i did was getting a bible. i used to read, every day, one scripture, one verse. i would deliver him and honour him because he set his love upon me and with long life would i satisfy him. so he would deliver me, deliver my.here first and then deliver me out of prison, but i had to set my love, i had to love, and that s what i did. it wasjuly 17, 1994, the day she was born. i was in the countyjail. they announced over the intercom, dontae sharpe is the proud father of a baby girl.
to me, this is sort of the core of how unbelievable it is that dontae sat in prison for 26 years, is that the evidence was right there in front of all of ourfaces. it was before the courts. the judge went back to his chambers and made it clear that he was going to announce his ruling from the bench, which is not always what happens in these cases. the court now resumes the sitting for the dispatch of this business.