JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man is getting his life back after spending eight years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Dustin Duty was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 2013.
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This evening, Duty was able to walk out of the doors of the Duval County Jail.
He did that with a big smile on his face and hugs for some of the legal team that worked hard to urge the state to drop the case, giving Duty his freedom back.
Now he said he’s ready to start the next chapter in his life and visit his mom back in Ohio.
In eight years: we’ve seen electric cars on our roads, Tik Tok changed how some of us use social media and we’ve even seen regular people blast off into space!
These are things you and I might take for granted, but Duty didn’t get to experience it at all.
Duty was dropped off by his boss one day, and he found himself in an interrogation room.
Duty was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery and arrested outside the Safari Food Store in San Marco in 2013.
Duty was sentenced to 20 years, and he served more than eight of them.
As of Wednesday afternoon, he officially became a free man – right before his 37th birthday next week.
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When Cole asked him how he was feeling, Duty replied: “I’m excited. I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m excited. I’m overwhelmed with joy. I like to thank my legal team, without them, I couldn’t have done it. And I’m just ready to get on with my life.”
Craig Trocino of the University of Miami School of Law Innocence Clinic and Seth Miller of the Innocence Project of Florida— worked together to represent Duty and convince the state to drop his case.
“The difficulty is convincing courts, at this stage, that you have an innocent client that is worthy of relief. And we spent the last five years of this case doing just that,” Trocino said.
Miller said Duty’s case was solely based on a witness identifying him to police.
“The identification was done, through an extremely suggestive process where they brought the victim to the place where Dustin was apprehended and said, ‘Is that the guy?’ Which is a really disfavor practice called a show-up,” Miller explained.
Trocino and Miller also explained that Duty had an alibi (from his boss), that put him in the area after the time of the incident. In addition, he was dressed differently from the person who committed the crime. But Duty’s original counsel didn’t dig deeper or present any of this critical evidence.
Duty said his faith in God and knowing that he had a family kept him going.
“I know if I just kept doing what I had to do and put my best foot forward, justice would prevail,” said Duty.
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Trocino told Cole that 18 law students worked on Duty’s case over the last five years.
Duty says he’s thankful for every last one of them and has this measure to share for those who may feel hopeless.
“Don’t give up hope that there are people out here that do care and they are fighting… and I would just like to thank Seth and Craig and everyone involved,” Duty said.
Trocino told Cole, including Duty’s release, there have been 2,884 exonerations nationwide, since 1989.
“We know from the numerous DNA exonerations over the years what are the leading causes of wrongful conviction. The one that causes wrongful convictions, more than all the other reasons combined, is faulty eyewitness identification,” said Trocino.