Five years after his release from jail, Kinston man pardoned by Gov. Cooper

Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday announced a pardon of innocence for Howard Dudley, who served more than 20 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.

Dudley, of Kinston, was convicted of molesting his daughter, but she later recanted those claims. Prosecutors never presented any physical evidence of an assault during Dudley’s 1992 trial. Mental health experts testified the daughter suffers from mental illness and was easily led to make false statements.

The pardon make Dudley eligible to file a claim for compensation from the state for the time he lost while in jail.

Upon his release in 2016, Dudley said he survived in jail each day by waking up at about 4 a.m. to pray and read his Bible.

“The only thing I had to fight with was truth, and truth has prevailed,” Dudley said at that time.