CLEVELAND — After fighting for 35 years to clear his name of murder charges, it took a 6-minute court hearing Friday morning for Dwayne Brooks to walk out of a Cuyahoga County courtroom a free man.
"I have to say the law is not perfect, as evidenced by Dwayne's incarceration," said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge William McGinty. "The fact that any person is held in jail for one day, let alone 12,729 days, shocks the conscience of reasonable men and women."
McGinty dismissed the indictment charging Brooks with the August 1987 shooting that wounded two men and killed Clinton Arnold in Cleveland's Luke Easter Park.
For decades, Brooks maintained his innocence and said he wasn't even in Ohio when the shooting happened.
In April, McGinty threw out the murder conviction after finding prosecutors at the time of the original trial failed to turn over police reports to the defense attorneys that raised questions about Brooks' involvement in the crime.
For months, Brooks waited and wondered if prosecutors would retry him for Arnold's murder. But in a court filing earlier this week, prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the case.
But Brooks said it didn't feel real until today.
"Relief, lots of relief," said Brooks after the court hearing. "This isn't justice, but it's a semblance of justice on paper that I thought those courts weren't capable of."
A crowd of more than two dozen friends, family members, and supporters applauded after McGinty granted the motion to dismiss the case.
Brooks thanked the judge, then hugged his attorneys, mother and children, occasionally wiping the tears from his eyes.
A far cry from the anguish Brooks said he felt the first night he spent locked in a prison cell following his 1988 conviction.
"Different tears, different tears," said Brooks. "You know it all hurts, but this is a good hurt. This is a good hurt because it's over."
Then, the man who said he hopes to be an inspiration to others fighting to prove their innocence walked out of the Justice Center and past the jail where he was once caged. As he did, some of those still locked up pounded on the windows.
Brooks stopped, turned and raised a fist in the air.
I'm Dwayne Brooks, and there's nobody like me," said Brooks, "but there are others who've been wrongfully convicted, and it needs to stop. It has to halt. The devastation that they caused me and my family can't be repaired."
