Man released after 20 years in prison

Dwayne Allen Dail walked out of a Goldsboro courtroom a free man this morning after spending the past 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Wayne County District Attorney Branny Vickory received a DNA report from the State Bureau of Investigation on Monday that excluded Dail in the 1987 rape of a 12-year-old Goldsboro girl.

The exoneration follows a lengthy inquiry by the nonprofit N.C. Center for Actual Innocence, which uncovered evidence that authorities thought had been destroyed after Dail's trial.

Dail was sentenced to two life sentences plus 18 years in 1989 on charges of first-degree rape and other charges stemming from the incident. The victim identified him, and hair found at the scene was found to be consistent with his.

But even prosecutors wondered about the case, Vickory said. The trial took place in the days before DNA testing, and the hair test could have been a match with many other Caucasian males.

Vickory said the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, Donald Strickland, and Dail's defense attorney had both singled Dail's case out as one that troubled them.

The victim identified Dail from among a group of men she saw near her home days or weeks after the rape, Vickory said.

"The way everybody described it, she just froze and said 'That's the man, that's the man,' " Vickory said. "That led to very powerful evidence with the jury."

Dail never admitted guilt. Chris Mumma, director of the innocence center, said he had turned down a plea bargain that would have given him three years of probation.

The center, staffed by law and journalism students at several Triangle universities, took on the case in 2001. All of the students who looked into the case believed strongly in Dail's innocence. But Wayne County authorities were convinced all physical evidence had been destroyed.

Years later, Mumma decided to try one more time. A helpful clerk told her that one police officer, already deceased, had kept evidence from all of his cases. It turned out that officer had worked Dail's case, Mumma said.

A box with a nightgown, sheet and other evidence turned up in a bicycle closet, Vickory said.

Mumma said the lab has already matched DNA found on the nightgown to someone currently in prison.