Being at the wrong place at the wrong time with lots of trouble involved is what the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria calls Arinfesesi.
Seems Joseph Sledge actually fell a victim of Arinfesesi more than 35 years ago, and that cost him a life imprisonment sentence and murder conviction.
All that is history now as DNA report helps prove his innocence, and he is a free man.
According to CNN, a man who spent more than half his life in a North Carolina prison for two murders he didn't commit walked out a free man Friday, holding his belongings in two white plastic bags.
Joseph Sledge, who was wrongfully convicted in 1978, said he feels wonderful about his freedom. He is now 70-years old.
Sledge was exonerated by a three-judge panel who reviewed post-conviction DNA evidence from the victims. The panel said that evidence excluded Sledge as a suspect. A witness who testified that Sledge had admitted to the murders recanted his testimony in 2013.
Josephine Davis and her daughter Aileen Davis were discovered in September 1976 inside their home in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. The women had been beaten and stabbed multiple times; Aileen Davis had been sexually assaulted.
The day before the women's bodies were found, Sledge had escaped from White Lake Prison Camp, approximately 4 miles from the victims' home. He had been serving a four-year sentence for larceny.
Seems Joseph Sledge actually fell a victim of Arinfesesi more than 35 years ago, and that cost him a life imprisonment sentence and murder conviction.
All that is history now as DNA report helps prove his innocence, and he is a free man.
According to CNN, a man who spent more than half his life in a North Carolina prison for two murders he didn't commit walked out a free man Friday, holding his belongings in two white plastic bags.
Joseph Sledge, who was wrongfully convicted in 1978, said he feels wonderful about his freedom. He is now 70-years old.
Sledge was exonerated by a three-judge panel who reviewed post-conviction DNA evidence from the victims. The panel said that evidence excluded Sledge as a suspect. A witness who testified that Sledge had admitted to the murders recanted his testimony in 2013.
Josephine Davis and her daughter Aileen Davis were discovered in September 1976 inside their home in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. The women had been beaten and stabbed multiple times; Aileen Davis had been sexually assaulted.
The day before the women's bodies were found, Sledge had escaped from White Lake Prison Camp, approximately 4 miles from the victims' home. He had been serving a four-year sentence for larceny.
Sledge was picked up after he was spotted in Dillon, South Carolina, driving a stolen car, arrested and brought back to North Carolina, where he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the Davises.
At trial, the state presented forensic evidence linking Sledge to the crime. Two inmates also testified against Sledge, saying he had admitted to the crimes behind bars. He was convicted and sentence to life in prison.
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