In March 2016, Howard Dudley was freed after serving more than 23 years in North Carolina prisons, convicted of a crime that never occurred. He said of his journey from prison to exoneration, “The only thing I had to fight with was the truth.”

Dudley works every day to find his place in the community he was torn from in 1992. He faces each day with the support of his family and his church, and a determination to forgive and move forward.

Dudley was exonerated with the assistance of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at Duke Law Innocence Project.