INNOCENT

New York Man Exonerated After 27 Years in Prison

With the help of an investigation by “Golf Digest.”

A 48-year-old man accused of murdering a teenager in 1991 was exonerated Wednesday after spending 27 years behind bars. Valentino Dixon’s conviction was vacated after another man, Lamarr Scott, confessed to fatally shooting 17-year-old Torriano Jackson in 1991. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Dixon said after his release, according to The Buffalo News. In 2012, Golf Digest published a first-person essay by Dixon, who spent most of his time in prison at Attica Correctional Facility in New York. In the essay, Dixon wrote about his love for drawing golf courses, even though he’d never stepped foot on one. He also insisted that he was innocent, and the magazine investigated the alleged crime, eventually finding witnesses to corroborate Dixon’s story. The Golf Digest piece garnered national attention, prompting Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative to get involved.