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There were dozens of witnesses when a shootout broke out at the corner of a street in Buffalo on August 10, 1991. At least three people were injured and Torriano Jackson, 17, was killed.
Valentino Dixon, then 21, was on the scene. A few hours later, he was arrested. And in 1992, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison for life, with no possibility of parole until 2030.
For years, Mr. Dixon fought this conviction behind bars, insisting on his innocence. No physical evidence had ever associated him with the murder and another man had confessed him more than once.
After nearly three decades and some unusual twists, his murder conviction was overturned on Wednesday – and Mr. Dixon, 48, was released.
"I felt like in a dream," he said during a phone interview at a Red Lobster restaurant, surrounded by friends, relatives, and lawyers, and said he was in a dream. preparing to eat lobster for the first time.
While he was fighting for his conviction to be overturned, Mr. Dixon got help from various characters. Among them, Golf Digest reporters, a new Erie County attorney, witnesses whose accounts were never presented at trial, a team of undergraduate students at Georgetown University and a man with a long experience of incarceration: Martin Tankleff imprisoned for 17 years after being wrongly convicted of murdering his parents and released in 2007.
At first, the case of Mr. Dixon was mainly covered by The Buffalo News. But Mr. Dixon's attention grew in 2012. In jail, for hours a day, he enjoyed drawing detailed pencil-colored landscapes. Golf courses were a frequent subject. This drew the attention of Golf Digest reporters and the magazine introduced Mr. Dixon.
In 2017, a new attorney, John Flynn, took office in Erie County and set up a unit responsible for the integrity of convictions to investigate the cases likely to occur in Erie County. 39 to be examined.
In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Tankleff said he had never heard of an undergraduate class like this. "It's not a course on imaginary cases," he said. "They are real people, real lives, real implications."
With several cases to choose from, three students chose Mr. Dixon's case and collected evidence. They found witnesses, looked at documents, called Dixon on the phone several times a week, and visited him in jail. Eventually, they were convinced that he was telling the truth and they makes a short documentary on the subject.
Their work helped Donald M. Thompson, a lawyer for Mr. Dixon, present his case to the district attorney's office. In an interview on Wednesday, District Attorney Flynn said the newly discovered evidence of various witnesses testifying to Dixon's innocence was considered credible.
This evidence included a confession by Lamarr Scott, who repeatedly claimed to have killed Torriano Jackson, although he had once received a confession before a grand jury. On Wednesday, Scott, who is in jail for indefinite shooting, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Jackson's murder.
Mr. Dixon indicated that he had met Mr. Scott when both were incarcerated at the Attica Correctional Facility. They were cordial, he said, but did not speak much.
Mr. Thompson testified that Mr. Scott used Mr. Dixon's gun in the murder. A charge of arms against Mr. Dixon has not been dropped.
Everyone does not believe Mr. Dixon is innocent. Aaron Jackson, wounded in the shooting that killed his brother Torriano, has consistently and vehemently supported seeing Mr. Dixon commit murder. Jackson could not be reached Wednesday night, but told WGRZ, a local newscast, that he was certain that Dixon was guilty.
"He is not innocent, and he has not been tried and sentenced by a kangaroo court," Jackson said. "I do not think he should ever be free."
Although Mr. Flynn finally concluded otherwise, he understood Mr. Jackson's concerns. "Valentino Dixon is out of prison today," he said. "The real victim is Torriano Jackson, who unfortunately does not come out of the grave."
Dr. Howard described the conviction of Mr. Dixon in 1992 as "staggering", adding that at Mr. Dixon's trial, the prosecution's witnesses were unreliable and the defense did not present witnesses at all. . "And it's not like the students just took something that was in a bind," he added. "The golf angle was of great interest and interest."
On Wednesday, two of these students returned to New York to see Mr. Dixon leave the Erie County hearing room. Ellie Goonetillake has left England and Julie Fragonas from France. Both have completed their undergraduate studies and have begun postgraduate studies in law.
Ms. Goonetillake, 23, said the class was different from anything she had taken before. "It was the most immersive, challenging and challenging course of my life," she said. "But everything is paying off today."
Ms. Fragonas, 21, said she was exhausted to see Mr. Dixon and his family struggling while he was incarcerated. "But it was also a rewarding experience," she said. "When we saw him out of the courtroom, it was really the best feeling."
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Dixon was accompanied by his grandmother, several cousins, a few aunts, his mother, two of his three daughters, and three of his six grandchildren. They had to reserve a whole lobster room.
His daughter Valentina Dixon, 27, had only a few months when her father went to jail. She has also been working for years to get him released. "He told me we were going through all this and that we needed to stay strong in our fight," she said. "His encouragement and enthusiasm and endurance drove us to be where we are today."
Now, Mr. Dixon has plans. He said that he wanted to cook breakfast – and then lunch, and then dinner – for his mother and grandmother on Thursday. He wanted to visit a golf course (he never played the game) and take his kids fishing to Sodus Point, New York.
And then he wants to work on criminal justice reform, focusing on his home state, New York. "I will devote my life to the fight against mass incarceration," he said.
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