In 1994, Dontae Sharpe was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a white man in Greenville, NC. In 2019, a judge in the case discovered a key witness “entirely made up” her testimony, leading to Sharpe’s conviction.   

Sharpe had been wrongfully imprisoned for 24 years but was exonerated in 2019. On Friday, Sharpe received a call from his attorney that would again change his life.  

“Theresa [Newman] called me and said, ‘Hey, Mr. Pardon Man.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean, ‘Mr. Pardon Man?’” Sharpe told The Washington Post. “She said, ‘The governor just pardoned you.’ That just left me smiling on my couch and kind of awestruck.”  

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper pardoned Sharpe after reviewing his case, which has been the foundation of criminal justice advocates.  

Related: Maryland Man Exonerated 17 Years After Wrongful Conviction for Murder 

“Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged,” Cooper said in a news release.  

Sharpe, now 46, seeks $750,000 in compensation from the state of North Carolina for his wrongful conviction.  

“No one is saying, or can say, he was released on a technicality,” Newman said. “The technicality is that he was innocent.”  

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, nearly 2,900 people have been exonerated since 1989. The registry also states those who were wrongfully convicted spent at least 25,000 years collectively, in prison. 

Related: Kevin Richardson of the ‘Exonerated 5’ Gets Honorary Degree from SU 

“This thing is commonplace now,” Sharpe told The Washington Post. “It can happen in so many places in so many ways, especially to people of color. People look at you like an animal or a monster, and you can’t get that out of people’s minds.”