A Georgia man who was wrongly convicted of armed robbery and murder in 1998 could receive a $1.6 million payout if a resolution that was introduced this week in the Georgia House is successful, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Under House Resolution 70, Devonia Inman would be paid $70,000 for each year he was imprisoned. The payout would cover any potential claims against the state.
Inman was in his early 20s when he was convicted of the murder of Donna Brown, a Taco Bell night manager in Adel, Georgia. She was killed in the restaurant’s parking lot and robbed of about $1,700. By 2021 when he was freed, Inman had served 23 years of the life sentence.
After the Georgia Supreme Court asked the attorney general’s office to reexamine Inman’s case, a judge threw out the conviction.
“Of the multitude of cases in which a new trial has been denied, Inman’s case is the one that causes me the most concern that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison,” wrote the court’s then-presiding judge David Nahmias, The Intercept reports.
Inman, who remained adamant about his innocence, was freed in December 2021 after DNA evidence identified a different suspect, a man named Hercules Brown (not related to Donna Brown). He is currently serving a life sentence without parole after his conviction for the murder of two people at a grocery store in Adel months after the Taco Bell killing.
“I spent 23 years behind bars for something I didn’t do,” Inman said upon his release, according to the Georgia Innocence Project. “It took a really long time to fix, even though it was so clear I wasn’t guilty. I’m glad I get to finally go home, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped make that possible.”
Inman’s case was the subject of the “Murderville, Georgia” podcast series, which The Intercept published in 2018. He was also profiled in 2017 during Season 4 of The AJC’s “Breakdown” podcast.
“It’s very unfortunate what happened. There’s no amount of money that can compensate for the years he spent in prison, but this can help soften the blow,” said state Rep. Penny Houston, the sponsor of the resolution, according to The AJC.
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