RALEIGH, N.C. — Dontae Sharpe was granted a pardon of innocence Friday by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper after spending more than a quarter of a century incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit.
Sharpe, who is from Charlotte, was released from prison in August 2019 after being arrested and wrongly charged with first-degree murder when he was 19. His arrest was largely based on the testimony of a woman who later admitted she lied.
“I haven’t soaked it in yet,” Sharpe said, visibly emotional, during an interview with reporters Friday afternoon. “It was a surprise.”
He has been advocating for a pardon since his exoneration, and gathered in July with activists in front of the state Capitol in Raleigh to urge Cooper to grant him a full pardon.
Sharpe said at the rally that his mother spent her whole savings sending him money and trying to prove his innocence, and the state failed to support him after his release.
Throughout his imprisonment, Sharpe refused several plea deals that would have shortened his sentence and maintained his innocence.
“The system in North Carolina said time and time again if you would say yes to something you did not do, we’d consider letting you out,” the Rev. William Barber II said. “I’m so glad that Dontae listened to his momma’s teachings — don’t ever say you did something you did not do.”
Advocates have argued that Sharpe’s wrongful conviction is evidence of racism in North Carolina’s legal system, and have said that pardons are an important step toward changing that.
“I have carefully reviewed Montoyae Dontae Sharpe’s case and am granting him a Pardon of Innocence,” Cooper said in a press release. “Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged.”
Sharpe thanked his family and supporters repeatedly, saying during his darkest hours, they lifted him up. He also thanked Cooper for making his decision, while Barber urged the governor to invite Sharpe for a meeting to talk “man to man.”
Sharpe is eligible now to file a claim against the state of North Carolina for compensation.
He said Friday that his work still isn’t done while there are wrongfully incarcerated people sitting in North Carolina prisons.
“My freedom ain’t still complete,” he said. “Know that our system is corrupt and needs to be changed ... I’m thankful that I got mine and thankful that other guys are gonna get theirs. That’s what’s important now.
“Now my family’s name has been cleared, it lifts a burden off my shoulders.”
