73-year-old woman exonerated after wrongfully serving 27 years in prison

A 74-year-old woman and her late boyfriend have been exonerated of the 1987 rape and murder of her four-year-old niece after spending nearly 30 years behind bars.

Joyce Watkins was convicted of the rape and murder of her great niece Brandi in 1988. Police and prosecutors alleged that she and her boyfriend, Charles Dunn, brutalized the girl so badly that she died in the nine hours that she was in their care. 

“It was a long struggle to get here,” Watkins told Yahoo News through her lawyer, Jason Gichner, the senior legal counsel for the Tennessee Innocence Project.

“We’re grateful for the judge and we’re grateful for the collaboration with the district attorney’s office,” Gichner echoed, “But [Watkins] lost 27 years of her life. Charlie lost 27 years of his life. His kids and grandkids grew up with people thinking that their father and grandfather was a murderer. There’s nothing we can do to fix that. All we can do is acknowledge what happened to them and publicly celebrate their innocence now.”

Watkins and Dunn spent 27 years behind bars before they were both granted parole in 2015. Dunn, however, passed away in jail before his release.

In the years since her release, Watkins has focused on clearing her and Dunn’s name. With the help of the Tennessee Innocence Project and the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, Watkins filed to have her and Dunn’s convictions vacated on November 10, 2021.

“We got this case because she (Joyce) came to us,” Jason Gichner, senior legal counsel with the Tennessee Innocence Project told CNN. “She just showed up at the office and said, ‘Let me tell you my story. I need your help.’”

The ruling additionally noted that the medical examiner conceded the error in her methodology years after the trial.

“Joyce Watkins and Charlie Dunn are innocent,” District Attorney Glenn Funk told CNN. “We cannot give Ms. Watkins or Mr. Dunn their lost years but we can restore their dignity; we can restore their names. Their innocence demands it.”

Watkins is the first Black woman to ever be exonerated in Tennessee and only the third woman in state history, CNN reported.