John,

Today, after 33 years of wrongful conviction, Tyrone Day was finally exonerated. A Dallas County District Court judge dismissed the 1990 sexual assault charge against him, based on new evidence of his innocence. Today’s official exoneration was the culmination of an extensive collaborative re-investigation with the Dallas County District Attorney Conviction Integrity Unit.

Tyrone is one of the Innocence Project’s longest-standing clients. “This exoneration has been a long time coming for Mr. Day, who first wrote to the Innocence Project in 2000,” said Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation for the Innocence Project. “Like 26% of the nation’s exonerees who plead guilty to crimes they did not commit, Mr. Day had no real choice. Going to trial in a system stacked against him carried the risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. He pled guilty because it seemed to be the most compelling chance to reunite with his daughters, who were just 2 and 3 years old, sooner. But that was tragically not the case — he spent two and a half decades locked away. Since his release on parole, Mr. Day has worked to build a beautiful life with his family and given so much to the Dallas community through his work as a food justice advocate and horticulturist at Restorative Farms.”

Please take a moment to read more about Tyrone’s case and then share the news of his exoneration with your friends and family on social media.

On Oct. 25, 1989, Dallas police responded to a call from an 18-year-old woman who said she was the victim of a sexual assault. The woman, who is white, deaf, and has a speech disability, was walking with a friend when they were approached by a man who offered them drugs. She reportedly refused the offer and was subsequently pulled into a nearby vacant apartment where she was sexually assaulted by three unknown men. 

While communicating with police through handwritten notes after the attack, the woman saw Tyrone, who is Black, walking by and identified him as one of the men who attacked her. But she never saw his face and based her identification on the fact that Tyrone was wearing a white hat that looked like a hat one of her assailants had worn. Police arrested Tyrone that night based solely on the identification, despite the fact that the woman had been about 50 feet away when she made the identification and never got out of the police car to get a closer look.

Tyrone steadfastly maintained his innocence, but his attorney told him that if he went to trial and lost, he could be facing a 99-year sentence. He told him — incorrectly — that if he accepted a guilty plea with a sentence of 40 years, he would likely be released on parole after four years in prison and could be reunited with his two young daughters sooner. During this time, Tyrone was incarcerated at the county jail, was experiencing significant health issues that were not being treated, and desperately wanted to get back home to his children — so he accepted the plea. He ended up spending 26 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit before he was released on parole and required to register as a sex offender, which impeded his ability to rebuild his life and live freely.

Upon his exoneration today, Tyrone said, “It has been a long, hard journey for my family and me, but I never lost faith that my innocence would be proven.” To those in prison who continue to fight for vindication, Tyrone says: “Never give up. Keep pursuing your justice — your freedom. Keep pursuing the truth.”

Tyrone was represented by Vanessa Potkin at the Innocence Project, Gary Udashen of the Innocence Project of Texas, and Paul Genender and Jenae Ward of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

Learn more about Tyrone’s story and the problem with guilty pleas in our criminal legal system.

Thank you so much for your support,

— The Innocence Project Team