It’s a pretty big Father’s Day for me and my family this year — the first one I can actually spend with my dad in more than a decade. When I was just eight years old, he was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and spent nearly 16 years behind bars.
Photo of Darrill (right), with his son Darrill Jr. and daughter Daranika in New Orleans in June 2020. Photo by Claire Bangser/Innocence Project.
Growing up with our dad in prison was hard for my younger brother Darrill Jr. and me. Before his sentence, he’d always pick us up from school and take us everywhere with him. Anything we wanted to do, he wanted to be the one to make it happen.
After my dad went to prison, at first I didn’t understand what was going on, but it finally started to register when I was around 10 years old that my dad would be in prison the rest of my life. We visited him regularly at Angola penitentiary — it was always so hard to leave him. We’d be there for hours, but it never felt like enough time. He’s always been the only person that I can tell everything and anything to, so not having him around during the big moments in my life was extremely difficult.
Finally, in March — what we had been waiting 16 years for — the judge who presided over my dad’s trial granted a new trial based on new DNA evidence found at the crime scene that conclusively excluded my father. He always said he was innocent, and now he had the proof he needed.
My dad was released on bail while waiting for his new trial. We still have a long road ahead of us, but I’m so happy to have him home now, especially since I’m expecting my first child. I don’t want him to leave my side ever again, and I want him to be here with me to hold his first grandchild.
This is the best Father’s Day we have ever shared, and I can’t wait to share many more like this one.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad.
Daranika Guitroz
If you’re able to help out, you can donate to Darrill’s bail fund to help him and his family pay off the debt and start this new chapter in their lives.
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
