Speaker 1: Jason, I've been thinking a lot about post incarceration, and
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you have thought about people getting released
Speaker 1: from prison, particularly people who were wrongfully convicted, and how
Speaker 1: they adapt once they're out. You Know, My thing, Maggie
Speaker 1: is that I think that the overwhelming majority of people
Speaker 1: coming out of prison, innocent or guilty, all they need
Speaker 1: is a chance, right, and if you open that door
Speaker 1: a crack, they're gonna go marching through it and and
Speaker 1: they're going to, you know, do the best they can
Speaker 1: do with the time they have. It's a lot more
Speaker 1: to it and just being free, because the prison part
Speaker 1: it was hard, but it's not harder than being thrown
Speaker 1: back into a big old ocean and you don't know
Speaker 1: what's in it or we'st there no more from lava
Speaker 1: for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today
Speaker 1: Davonna Inman. In the early morning of September nine, Donna
Speaker 1: Brown closed up a taco bell in adel Georgia. She
Speaker 1: was walking through the parking lot to her car carrying
Speaker 1: cash she needed to deposit for work when she was
Speaker 1: robbed and shot dead almost immediately. Twenty year old Devonia
Speaker 1: Inman became a suspect when his girlfriend's sister told police
Speaker 1: Davonna had come over that night with a whole lot
Speaker 1: of money. Davonna had an alibi, though he was with
Speaker 1: his family, including his grandmother and girlfriend, at the time
Speaker 1: of the murder, but sue when other people came forward
Speaker 1: implicating Davonia, and he was arrested and charged with the
Speaker 1: murder of Donna Brown. He faced the death penalty. After
Speaker 1: a flimsy trial at best, Davonia was convicted of murder.
Speaker 1: Years later, DNA evidence would exonerate him and identify the
Speaker 1: true killer, but that was only after a decade of
Speaker 1: legal battles with the Attorney General, who sought to uphold
Speaker 1: his conviction. Still, Davonna is forgiving of him and of
Speaker 1: others who sought the death penalty. I forget him too,
Speaker 1: because everybody deserves mercy, even the people that you think
Speaker 1: are bad. You know, ye had to forgive people for
Speaker 1: page today, dupe. My name is Davona Tyrone Emmin and
Speaker 1: I was incarcerated for twenty three years for something that
Speaker 1: I didn't do. The oldest of four kids, Davannia Inman,
Speaker 1: was born on his grandparents couch in Adel Georgia on
Speaker 1: August nine. Adel is a small town of about five
Speaker 1: thousand people in rural Georgia, close to the Panhandle of
Speaker 1: Florida and Tallahassee. Davinia was a happy kid, Ah, silly kid,
Speaker 1: you know, showing off the dressing up. This is Davonna's mom, Dinah.
Speaker 1: He was a loving Karen person who you know, he
Speaker 1: would do anything for just about anybody. When Davonia was
Speaker 1: a toddler, his parents divorced and he moved with his
Speaker 1: mom to Sacramento, California. His mom, Dina, remarried a military
Speaker 1: man named David Ray, who raised Vannia like his own son.
Speaker 1: Here's David. I'm a member of mostly about the birthday parties.
Speaker 1: He always, no matter what, he wanted to be the
Speaker 1: center kitchen, even if it wasn't his birthday. But did
Speaker 1: we just love having fun and just opened up gifts
Speaker 1: and and eating cake. Little Davonna dreamed of being in
Speaker 1: the military, just like his stepdad who was stationed in
Speaker 1: the army. I like you to dress up and play
Speaker 1: army all the time. Yes, he was putting on my
Speaker 1: big clothing. Yes, and we just like go out and
Speaker 1: play with war. And he really liked that. I can
Speaker 1: picture him just like as a little boy, dressing up
Speaker 1: in military clothes. Were you proud of him? Would you?
Speaker 1: Were you? Did you want him to go into the military? Yes,
Speaker 1: I was fine with it. I ain't gonna say I
Speaker 1: wanted him to, but he wanted to. Davanna also dreamt
Speaker 1: of doing some kind of computer technician or mechanic work.
Speaker 1: His mom would see him putting his mechanical mind to
Speaker 1: work on his dirt bikes. He liked to ride them
Speaker 1: around and have fun and take him apart and see
Speaker 1: how they come apart and try to put them back together.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it works, sometimes it did. He put them back
Speaker 1: together sometimes sometimes he did. Davonna would still travel back
Speaker 1: and forth to Adel on occasion, and in had a
Speaker 1: son with a woman from Adele. He named him Travinsky.
Speaker 1: As Davanna got older, he started running with the wrong
Speaker 1: crowd and getting into trouble and sacramento petty crimes like
Speaker 1: car theft. Eventually, Dinah had enough and sent him back
Speaker 1: to Adel to live with his grandmother. But Davonna's time
Speaker 1: with his grandmother was short lived. It was only a
Speaker 1: month and a half after he got back to Adel
Speaker 1: that he would be arrested for murder. In the early
Speaker 1: morning of September nineteenth, Donna Brown was closing up a
Speaker 1: Taco bell in eight oh Donna was forty years old,
Speaker 1: a single mother with a seven year old son. It
Speaker 1: was only her second day as the new manager. Around
Speaker 1: two am, Donna was walking through the parking lot to
Speaker 1: her car. She was carrying over seventeen hundred dollars in
Speaker 1: cash she was going to deposit at a bank when
Speaker 1: she was robbed at gunpoint. She was fatally shot. The
Speaker 1: killer took off with her money and her car Davanna.
Speaker 1: At the time, he was with his family, including his
Speaker 1: grandmother and his girlfriend, Christie. Since Adl was a small
Speaker 1: town with limited resources, the police department was ill equipped
Speaker 1: to deal with the homicide, so they called in the
Speaker 1: Georgia Bureau of Investigation the g b I for help.
Speaker 1: Two days later, Devonia was picked up for questioning and
Speaker 1: Donna Brown's murder, and he was held on an unrelated charge.
Speaker 1: Investigators eventually found Donna's car abandoned in a Pizza Hut
Speaker 1: parking lot. Inside the car was crucial evidence the police
Speaker 1: initially did not collect, but we'll get to that later.
Speaker 1: Both the g b I and local law enforcement sort
Speaker 1: of sweep the town and start, you know, asking a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of questions. This is attorney Jessica Cino. She's
Speaker 1: not Davonna's attorney, but she's his friend and advocate. She
Speaker 1: came across Davanna's case in while visiting the offices of
Speaker 1: the Georgia Innocence Project. Needing fresh eyes on the case,
Speaker 1: Jessica gathered her students from Georgia State University College of
Speaker 1: Law in Atlanta, and they dove in. After looking it over,
Speaker 1: Jessica was convinced that Davonna was innocent. To me, the
Speaker 1: case represented this uh perfect storm of everything that could
Speaker 1: possibly go wrong in a case. Jessica says that right
Speaker 1: after Donna Brown's murder, the police and gb I canvassed
Speaker 1: the town and started asking questions. They eventually wound up
Speaker 1: talking to what Jessica calls a quote frequent flyer. Mean
Speaker 1: authorities know her very well. She's probably served as a
Speaker 1: confidential informant on different individuals at a certain point, and
Speaker 1: she tells them, you know, you need to talk to
Speaker 1: Davanna Inman. This woman's name was Marquetta Thomas, the sister
Speaker 1: of Davanna's girlfriend, Christie Marquetta, told police that Davanna came
Speaker 1: to her home with an unusually large amount of cash
Speaker 1: the night of the homicide, so that right there sort
Speaker 1: of seals Davanna's faith. Police also interviewed employees at the
Speaker 1: Taco Bell where Donna worked, including a woman named Larcia Chapman.
Speaker 1: Laricia left work early that night and claimed not to
Speaker 1: have seen anything, but a month later her story changed.
Speaker 1: Larissa now told police that she had seen someone hiding
Speaker 1: in the bushes outside of the restaurant and that she
Speaker 1: recognized that person as Davanna. So now you know, you've
Speaker 1: got Marquette Thomas, who puts Stavania, you know, having the
Speaker 1: money from the robbery and you know, essentially confessing to
Speaker 1: to the crime to her at least intimating that he
Speaker 1: did the Taco Bell thing. And then you have Laritia Chapman,
Speaker 1: who puts him at the scene of the crime. So
Speaker 1: Davionna is, you know, swiftly arrested. After his arrest, months
Speaker 1: passed without any indictment. But then two other key witnesses
Speaker 1: came forward. One is a woman named Virginia Tatum, and
Speaker 1: she is a newspaper delivery person. She gives a statement
Speaker 1: to the police, later testifying to the same in court
Speaker 1: that on the night of the crime, she saw somebody
Speaker 1: driving Donna Brown's car across that inner State from the
Speaker 1: Taco Bell to the Pizza Hut, and it whips around
Speaker 1: the corner at high speed at like two in the morning.
Speaker 1: But she can state with absolute, absolute certainty that the
Speaker 1: driver of the car is Divine Emmon. She could see
Speaker 1: down to the detail of the earring in his ear
Speaker 1: and necklace around his neck. Jessica Leaves, Virginia, was motivated
Speaker 1: to come forward by a newspaper ad offering a five
Speaker 1: thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest. Her
Speaker 1: story places Davannia in the victim's car, transporting it from
Speaker 1: Taco Bell to Pizza Hut. Last, but not least, someone
Speaker 1: who had been incarcerated alongside Davonia comes forward. Rince says
Speaker 1: that Davana confessed to him. So now we've got a
Speaker 1: jail house snitched. That man's name was Kwamie Spaulding. So
Speaker 1: you've got Marquetta Thomas Luritia Chapman the jail house snitch,
Speaker 1: and you've got Virginia Tatum All linking Davonia to the crime.
Speaker 1: On January, almost exactly four months after Donna Brown was killed.
Speaker 1: Davonia Inman is indicted for armed robbery, theft, a legal
Speaker 1: possession of a firearm, and capital murder. This episode is
Speaker 1: underwritten by a i G, a leading global insurance company.
Speaker 1: A i G is committed to corporate social responsibility and
Speaker 1: to making a positive difference in the lives of its
Speaker 1: employees and in the communities where we work and live.
Speaker 1: In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
Speaker 1: and in recognition of a i g's commitment to criminal
Speaker 1: and social justice reform, the a i G pro Bono
Speaker 1: Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented
Speaker 1: communities and individuals. On June eleven, two, one over two
Speaker 1: years since he was arrested, Davanna's trial began. The prosecutor
Speaker 1: was d A. Bob Ellis, who sought the death penalty
Speaker 1: against Davanna. Interestingly enough, this sounds like an air tight
Speaker 1: case for the prosecution. The problem is that once the
Speaker 1: case actually starts to get going, it falls into pieces
Speaker 1: like it's in shambles. On the stand. Two of the
Speaker 1: prosecution's witnesses recanted their stories Marcatta Thomas, the sister of
Speaker 1: Davanna's girlfriend, who said she'd seen Davonnia with a lot
Speaker 1: of cash the night of the murder, and Laricia Chapman,
Speaker 1: who said she saw Davonna in the bushes at Taco Bell.
Speaker 1: Marcatta admits that she made up her story because she
Speaker 1: disapproved of the relationship Davonna had with her sister, and
Speaker 1: Laritia says officers pressured her, actually threatening to take her
Speaker 1: child away if she did not implicate Davonia in the crime. So,
Speaker 1: with no physical evidence against Ivanna, the prosecution now had
Speaker 1: just the statement of Virginia Tatum and apparently has uh,
Speaker 1: you know, superhero style eyesight to be able to describe
Speaker 1: the level of detail of a car going around a
Speaker 1: corner at like thirty and the testimony of Kwamie Spalding,
Speaker 1: the jailhouse informant who said Davonna had can Fest to him.
Speaker 1: Cawami was given a deal to testify a lighter sentence,
Speaker 1: and this was not disclosed to the defense or the jury.
Speaker 1: Davonna's attorney, Melinda Ryles, presented Devonia's alibi that he was
Speaker 1: with his grandmother and girlfriend at the time of the murder,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't enough. Davonia was swiftly convicted, but the
Speaker 1: jury did not give him the death penalty. They decide
Speaker 1: for life without opportunity for parole, which I've spoken to
Speaker 1: a few of the jurors on the original case and
Speaker 1: asked the exact question, which is, why didn't you give
Speaker 1: him the death penalty, to which both of them replied, well,
Speaker 1: we thought he might not be guilty, so we didn't
Speaker 1: want to sentence him to death just in case, which
Speaker 1: shows they had reasonable doubt. If the jury has doubt,
Speaker 1: they are instructed not to convict. Yet despite that, and
Speaker 1: despite Davonna pleading his innocence, they did. Nobody will believe me.
Speaker 1: Was a close family, my mom, my dad, my auntie,
Speaker 1: and that's about it. Everybody else either knew the truth
Speaker 1: and I was afraid to do something about it or
Speaker 1: just didn't care. How does that feel? Depressing? Sad in
Speaker 1: a way because you could have stopped something, you know,
Speaker 1: a long time ago before you were arrested. Have you
Speaker 1: ever thought about wrongful convictions? No, it is you never
Speaker 1: think something like that would happen. Davonna was twenty three
Speaker 1: years old when he was sentenced. To prison. He was
Speaker 1: the oldest of his siblings, but still his mother's baby boy.
Speaker 1: I felt like my life was destroyed. You know, you
Speaker 1: took my child away from me, and I felt there
Speaker 1: was nothing I could do. I didn't know who to
Speaker 1: turn to. I mean, the whole family was in disbelief.
Speaker 1: We can't believe it. During his first years in prison,
Speaker 1: Devonia passed his time by appealing the conviction, but his
Speaker 1: appeals were unsuccessful because the one thing we know about
Speaker 1: the criminal justice system is that it is absolutely designed
Speaker 1: to keep you in prison once you have been found guilty,
Speaker 1: right that whole presumption of innocence is gone. So trying
Speaker 1: to overturn a conviction was an incredibly high, if not
Speaker 1: impossible bar. Devonna says he was prepared to die in prison.
Speaker 1: Even watching TV, one of the only luxuries incarcerated people
Speaker 1: have reminded him of his bleak reality. When you have
Speaker 1: your life tooking away, it's like you can't do those scenes.
Speaker 1: Some more so, it's like, m do you try to
Speaker 1: forget about, forget about a life that you could have had,
Speaker 1: persons the life that you have. Focus your mind on
Speaker 1: what's surround you. Because four walls can drive you crazy.
Speaker 1: The only way you can drive you crazy if you
Speaker 1: take it about what the world is doing. However, Davonia persisted.
Speaker 1: He continued to reach out to any innocence organizations he
Speaker 1: could find for assistance. Eventually, nearly ten years after his conviction,
Speaker 1: Davonna heard back from the Georgia Innocence Project and they
Speaker 1: wanted to help. Now, innocence projects usually have a fairly
Speaker 1: high bar for accepting cases. Often that means being a
Speaker 1: case where DNA is able to prove someone's innocence conclusively
Speaker 1: and at the same time possibly find the true perpetrator.
Speaker 1: But there was no DNA used to convict Davonnia, So
Speaker 1: you might be wondering why did the Georgia Innocence Project
Speaker 1: take it. Well, actually there was DNA evidence, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't discovered until years after Devonna's conviction. When Donna Brown's
Speaker 1: car was found in the Pizza Hut parking lot and
Speaker 1: returned to her family, they found something inside, a makeshift
Speaker 1: mask made from the leg of a pair of sweatpants
Speaker 1: with two eye holes cut into it that police never collected.
Speaker 1: The Georgia Innocence Project jumped on this new evidence as
Speaker 1: a potential source of DNA in Davon's attorneys from the
Speaker 1: Georgia Innocence Project requested DNA testing of the mask, and
Speaker 1: it was granted. When the DNA came out, I already
Speaker 1: knew that it was just gonna be mine. I wanted
Speaker 1: to see the faces of the people who said it
Speaker 1: was me and what they would look like. Would they
Speaker 1: look at me, you know, and looked me in the eyes,
Speaker 1: you know, and you don't really have to say anything.
Speaker 1: You could just look me in the eyes in it
Speaker 1: and tell itself of how you feel, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I gotta be a hard thing to live with, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting somebody to prison for something they didn't do. The
Speaker 1: DNA actually came back with a match to a man
Speaker 1: named Hercules Brown. In fact, at trial, Davonna's attorneys fought
Speaker 1: and were denied the opportunity to present Hercules Brown as
Speaker 1: an alternate suspect because Brown had already been on the
Speaker 1: radar of Davina's team even before trial that he was
Speaker 1: the true killer of Donna Brown. And that's thanks to
Speaker 1: who witness testimonies saying he was talking about the murder.
Speaker 1: You know. They uncover various statements from witnesses who say
Speaker 1: that Hercules admitted to killing Donna Brown. And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: He worked at Taco Bell with Donna Brown and was
Speaker 1: an employee there. And one of the former employees of
Speaker 1: Taco Bell wanted to testify and Devon's trial, and her
Speaker 1: statement basically was that, you know, before the Taco Bell
Speaker 1: crime occurred, Hercules approached her with a scheme to rob it,
Speaker 1: basically an inside job, and they would split the money.
Speaker 1: And she said absolutely not, and she actually quit to
Speaker 1: avoid dealing with Hercules. Her replacement is Donna Brown. Now,
Speaker 1: ten years after Devonia's conviction, the DNA comes back linking
Speaker 1: Hercules Brown to Donna Brown's murder. Devonia's mom, Dina, remembers
Speaker 1: getting the news. She was at lunch with David, her husband,
Speaker 1: and we just started screaming and crying, you know, and
Speaker 1: we just knew he was coming home. But that didn't happen. Instead,
Speaker 1: motions had to be filed for a new trial, which
Speaker 1: could take another few years. Devanny's request was denied, then
Speaker 1: another motion was filed, followed by another denial. I was
Speaker 1: like one let down another let down. We were just
Speaker 1: couldn't believe that he wasn't coming home. What was that
Speaker 1: like to wait for so long when we knew at
Speaker 1: that point for sure you didn't do this by DNA.
Speaker 1: I guess it was like sad in the way, but
Speaker 1: it was more anger because it's like you didn't take
Speaker 1: long to put me here, but you want to check
Speaker 1: long to let me free when I proved my innocence.
Speaker 1: So I feel like it was it was wrong. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the real killer was still free to commit crimes, including
Speaker 1: the one that put Hercules Brown as a potential perpetrator
Speaker 1: in the mind of Davania's defense. At the end of
Speaker 1: two thousand, there is a heinous crime in this town
Speaker 1: and two beloved members who run this convenience store in
Speaker 1: a dell are brutally murdered and beaten to death with
Speaker 1: baseball bats. The two people who perpetrate the crime or
Speaker 1: seeing fleeing the scene in broad daylight, and they are
Speaker 1: quickly identified and arrested, and one of those individuals was
Speaker 1: Hercules Brown. Had they arrested Hercules originally for the taco
Speaker 1: bell crime, there are at least two people who would
Speaker 1: still be alive today. Like the most brutal murder of
Speaker 1: that town had ever seen. Would not have happened if
Speaker 1: they had originally arrested the right person. And there's a
Speaker 1: third murder that Hercules has been linked to that still
Speaker 1: remains unsolved today. Davona waited and waited for good news.
Speaker 1: By he had been imprisoned for nearly two decades, and
Speaker 1: for ten of those years, this new DNA evidence implicating
Speaker 1: another person for the crime he had been convicted of,
Speaker 1: was being ignored. So Davonia remained trapped in prison because
Speaker 1: every time his attorney's filed a motion for a new
Speaker 1: trial based on the DNA evidence, Attorney General Chris Carr
Speaker 1: would oppose and defend the conviction. But then, in a
Speaker 1: surprising move, Presiding Justice David Namius and then Chief Justice
Speaker 1: Harold Milton both wrote legal opinions urging Attorney General Card
Speaker 1: to stop defending Davannia's conviction. Namius wrote, quote, of the
Speaker 1: multitude of cases in which a new trial has been denied,
Speaker 1: in men's case is the one that causes me the
Speaker 1: most concern that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced
Speaker 1: to serve the rest of his life in prison. Finally,
Speaker 1: in Davonia was granted in evidentiary hearing a few months later,
Speaker 1: his conviction was vacated and he was granted a new trial.
Speaker 1: By this time, by the way, one of the prosecutors
Speaker 1: in Devonia's case, back in two thousand one, Bob Ellis,
Speaker 1: had been indicted and disbarred for sleeping with a confidential informant.
Speaker 1: The other prosecutor is indicted on federal drug charges eventually
Speaker 1: and ends up moving to Alabama. And then one of
Speaker 1: the jurors had some sort of relationship where if one
Speaker 1: of the witnesses like he he had hired her for
Speaker 1: exotic dancing, and you know, still gets to stay on
Speaker 1: the jury. Like you just can't. You can't write this
Speaker 1: in a fiction book because it's unbelievable. And a third witness,
Speaker 1: the jailhouse informant, Kwamie Spalding, had also recanted. The case
Speaker 1: against Avonia had completely fallen apart. Attorney General Carr finally
Speaker 1: stopped upholding the conviction, and eventually Davonna's charges were dismissed.
Speaker 1: On December, Davonia walked out of prison a freeman. So
Speaker 1: when he did come home and you got that news,
Speaker 1: did you think it was going to be like this? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't. I thought, I don't know I was asking
Speaker 1: Davonia's mom about his sadness and depression. You can hear
Speaker 1: it in his voice. The happy fund center of attention
Speaker 1: kid is parents described is no more. He's withdrawn, soft spoken,
Speaker 1: and looked like he had tears in his eyes the
Speaker 1: whole time we spoke. I mean, I often wondered when
Speaker 1: he comes home, will his memories be of all the
Speaker 1: fun things we did as a family, or would they
Speaker 1: be of his prison life? But I thought he would
Speaker 1: get home in it. You know, we all get back
Speaker 1: to this big, happy family that couldn't be, that's always together.
Speaker 1: But Dinah's dreams of everything going back to normal wouldn't
Speaker 1: come true. Davonia came home a broken man. It's just
Speaker 1: everybody feels I'm just supposed to be happy because you're
Speaker 1: out of prison. Wow, that isn't a real scenario or
Speaker 1: a real you know, feeling yeah, you're happy to be
Speaker 1: out that you're not, but the things that you're going
Speaker 1: through is even more sadder. What has that done to you? Sleepless,
Speaker 1: I have to be really tired to go to sleep,
Speaker 1: So I might be up for two three days and
Speaker 1: then go to sleep, because it's just like you'll remember
Speaker 1: certain things that happened, or when somebody got stabbed, or
Speaker 1: you have like flashbacks of it seeing it and it
Speaker 1: wakes you up, or you know, are you talking your
Speaker 1: sleep or whatever. Then you're still doing that outside of prison.
Speaker 1: It's slowed down now, But yeah, on I just feel
Speaker 1: like being in there for so long, it's like you're
Speaker 1: accustomed to one way. So when you come out here,
Speaker 1: people just misunderstand because they don't know what you've been
Speaker 1: through or what you know what I mean, So it
Speaker 1: kind of seems like they seem weird to you, and
Speaker 1: you seem weird to them. Jessicasino believes that the years
Speaker 1: behind bars for a crime he didn't commit has taken
Speaker 1: a toll on Devonia's mental health. You know, you've spent
Speaker 1: twenty three years in a prison system where every piece
Speaker 1: of your life is scripted. You can't do anything without
Speaker 1: the permission of the guards that you know, um, you
Speaker 1: have to navigate other prisoners. I mean, it was a
Speaker 1: traumatic experience. He had a very difficult time in the
Speaker 1: prison system. He's coming out into a world that he
Speaker 1: doesn't know, um and to a family you know that
Speaker 1: wave and support him to pieces. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's a family that has grown without him. At the moment,
Speaker 1: Davon has focused more on picking up the pieces of
Speaker 1: his life. He works at FedEx now, but he says
Speaker 1: it's the interpersonal relationships that are the hardest to navigate.
Speaker 1: Given how people he knew, like his then girlfriend's sister Marcatta,
Speaker 1: had lied about him, it is understandable that he would
Speaker 1: struggle with trusting others, and Davonna has had a lot
Speaker 1: of relationships to navigate, especially the one with his son Travinsky.
Speaker 1: So what's that like to now have this new responsibility
Speaker 1: of being a dad to a twentysomething year old. What
Speaker 1: are some of the what are some of the hardships
Speaker 1: you guys have? Mm hmmm. Me being occupied, you know,
Speaker 1: like with the daily stuff that I'd be wanting to
Speaker 1: do and happen to you know, talk to him or whatever,
Speaker 1: because he'd be wanting to talk and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I'll be busy a lot. I go to work
Speaker 1: and you know, you can't really you really just don't
Speaker 1: want to get on the phone, Like who wants to
Speaker 1: just be on the phone all day. Davona got his
Speaker 1: driver's license right after getting out of prison and says
Speaker 1: driving is his favorite thing to do right now, the
Speaker 1: freedom to just get out and explore wherever he wants
Speaker 1: without permission. I think the most gooddest feeling is walking
Speaker 1: outside in the middle of the night and get in
Speaker 1: the car and just going somewhere. Davonna says he's been
Speaker 1: all over in just a few months, including to Richmond,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and Reno. He says he'd like to get
Speaker 1: his g e D someday, but is having difficulties signing
Speaker 1: up without proper documentation after twenty three years in prison.
Speaker 1: He'd also like to mend the relationship with his son
Speaker 1: once he settles down more now that he has his freedom.
Speaker 1: Dyvonne wants people to be aware of the shortcomings of
Speaker 1: our criminal justice system and of the needed reform to
Speaker 1: help individuals with their reentry. It's a lot more to
Speaker 1: it and just being free. There's a lot more to
Speaker 1: it than just helping someone get out praiser for something
Speaker 1: that they didn't do. You can't just stop and Okay,
Speaker 1: now our job is done, because is even bigger tasked
Speaker 1: and the prison thing, you know, it's becoming, you know,
Speaker 1: accepted back into a society. On both parties. You know
Speaker 1: the world and you and people should pay more attention
Speaker 1: to that then to pass or what you had to overcome.
Speaker 1: Because the prison part it was hard, but it's not
Speaker 1: harder than being thrown back into a big old ocean
Speaker 1: and you don't know what's in it or what's there
Speaker 1: no more. If you want to help Davonia, please go
Speaker 1: to Mighty cause dot com and search Davona inmant Davona
Speaker 1: is seeking funds to help get back on his feet
Speaker 1: next time. Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Faye Jacobs. They
Speaker 1: arrested me and charge me with capital felony murder and
Speaker 1: set my bond at one million dollars. Okay, I'm sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I had never been to jail before
Speaker 1: in my life, and so I'm scared. I'm very scared.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam and
Speaker 1: Kevin Wurdis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea
Speaker 1: researcher Lila Robinson story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
Speaker 1: by Jeff Cleiburne and Connor Hall. The music in this
Speaker 1: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
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