Aaron Dyson spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. A year after his name was cleared, he was faced with previously dismissed charge. With that case dropped this week, he’s ready to move on.
It looked like Dyson’s entanglement with the criminal justice system was over when the district attorney’s office admitted following the Conviction Integrity Unit’s investigation that in 1997 itLast April, after spending 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Dyson was charged with the one he did. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. They offered a plea deal for eight years, time served. He had already spent an extra 16 years in prison.
The statement did not elaborate on why the charges were filed or a plea deal was initially offered with eight years time served. Dyson doesn’t hold anything against the current Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, saying the people who charged him are no longer there. He submitted a 38-page document outlining his case and waited. It was about nine or 10 weeks later when he got a response: The unit’s investigation determined, and the district attorney agreed, that he was convicted a crime he didn’t commit.“I was scared to death that my parents would die while I was in prison for this wrongful conviction,” he said. “I was scared I would die in prison.”
But he did start to adjust. Dyson got a job building outdoor kitchens and decks and decor. He got married. He started sleeping well again. “I’ve been fighting my case for 27 years,” Dyson said. “This has been a battle all my life. For them to finally just acknowledge that they needed to just put that behind them and just let me go, it was a tremendous relief for my wife, for my mom, for my dad. That this chapter is finally over.”
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