RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man who spent 24 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned was granted a pardon on Friday.
Gov. Roy Cooper issued the pardon of innocence for Montoyae Dontae Sharpe after weeks of protests demanding that he do so.
"Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged," Cooper said in a statement.
Sharpe was convicted of murder in the February 1994 shooting death of George Radcliffe in Greenville in what police called a drug deal gone awry. He was sentenced in 1995 to life in prison.
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