AUGUSTA — After being wrongly convicted of murder 23 years ago, Devonia Inman was set free from Augusta State Medical Prison Monday following exoneration of his conviction.  

At Inman’s death penalty trial in 2001, the state suggested he wore a ski mask in the 1998 robbery and murder of a Taco Bell store manager, Donna Brown, in Adel, Georgia. The killer shot the store owner in the parking lot and stole $1,700 and the victim’s car. Police later found the car abandoned nearby with a similar ski mask inside.

For more than two decades, Inman maintained his innocence, and his attorneys tried to call witnesses to present evidence that another man, Hercules Brown, had actually committed and admitted to the murder. 

“I spent 23 years behind bars for something I didn’t do,” said Inman, 43. “It took a really long time to fix, even though it was so clear I wasn’t guilty. I’m glad I get to finally go home and I’m grateful to everyone who helped make that possible.” 

The case gained nationwide attention as the first episode of a documentary series, “True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here,” on the SundanceTV channel, premiering only a few months ago.

While Inman was in jail awaiting trial, police had stopped Brown as he was about to commit a robbery, and found a homemade ski mask similar to the mask used in the Taco Bell murder in his car. 

As Inman sat in jail for more than two years awaiting his trial, Brown assaulted two people in the community and killed two other people and is now in prison for life without parole.

Years after the trial, the Georgia Innocence Project secured DNA testing on the ski mask used in the Taco Bell murder. The results showed that Brown’s DNA was on the mask. 

However, the prosecution failed to disclose the police report describing the mask, and the judge at Inman’s trial refused to allow the jury to hear the testimony about Brown, Inman’s attorneys said.

Despite Inman’s alibi and the complete lack of physical evidence tying him to the crime, Inman was convicted of armed robbery and malice murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.

Inman is currently represented by a team of lawyers from the Atlanta office of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, including Tom Reilly, Tiffany Bracewell, Kasia Hebda and Alan Long, who devoted more than five years to his case free of charge.

“We are elated to see Devonia and his family finally obtain the justice that so many have fought for so long to secure. We are privileged to have played a part in his long overdue exoneration, and to work at a firm committed to critically important pro bono matters like this,” Inman’s lawyers said in a statement. 

Inman’s attorneys said three witnesses recanted their testimony years ago, saying they were pressured or coerced by police, and one witness who did not recant was paid $5,000 for her purported eyewitness testimony – testimony that was directly contradicted by another person who had been with her at the time of the crime. 

“Despite so much compelling information showing that the state convicted the wrong man, it took a massive team effort that spanned almost a decade to correct this obvious injustice and free an innocent man from prison,” said Christina Cribbs, senior attorney from Georgia Innocence Project. “It simply cannot and should not take so long for the state to correct wrongful and unjust convictions in Georgia.” 

In January 2014, after investigating the case and securing the DNA testing that revealed Hercules Brown’s DNA on the mask from the Taco Bell killing, Georgia Innocence Project, in partnership with attorneys from Eversheds Sutherland, sought a new trial for Inman.

Inman was denied a new trial by Judge Buster McConnell – the same judge that presided over Inman’s original death penalty trial. GIP and partners presented the new DNA evidence implicating Brown, as well as testimony from another trial witness who said police coerced him into testifying falsely against Inman.

In November, a habeas corpus petition filed in 2018 was granted, which forced the state of Georgia to give Inman a new trial. Georgia’s attorney general declined to appeal; Alapaha District Attorney Chase Studstill filed a motion to dismiss the underlying charges, which Chief Judge Clayton Tomlinson granted Monday morning.

“The Georgia attorney general’s decision to delay and deflect for two years in Devonia’s case is out of step with the positive trends we are seeing across Georgia and the nation. Prosecutors wield great power and with that comes a great responsibility to do justice, not simply seek victory and defend convictions,” Georgia Innocence Project Executive Director Clare Gilbert said. “Moving forward, Georgia’s ethics rule for prosecutors, Rule 3.8, needs to track national guidelines, which would require prosecutors to attempt to remedy clear innocence cases like Devonia Inman’s.” 

Inman now plans to rejoin his family in California and begin the journey of readjusting and healing. Exoneree support services will be offered by the independent nonprofits, a personal fundraiser has been set up as a way to help Inman and his family. A fundraiser has been launched online at https://www.mightycause.com/story/Supportdevoniainman to establish medical care, rent an apartment and support himself and his family long-term.