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Brian Gordon
Asheville Citizen Times
Gov. Roy Cooper has pardoned four men who were wrongfully convicted of murder in Buncombe County, ending a decades-long legal battle surrounding the death of Walter Rodney Bowman.
Though Kenneth Kagonyera, Larry Williams, Damian Mills and Teddy Isbell had already been found innocent in connection to the 2000 shooting of Bowman, a Fairview resident, the pardons now allow each to pursue financial compensation from the state for their wrongful convictions.
Cooper also issued a pardon for Ronnie Long, a Concord resident who was freed in August after serving more than 40 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. These were the first pardons Cooper had issued in office.