The Ricky Dority Case: Wrongfully Convicted Man Uses His Covid-19 Relief Check To Hire A Private Investigator, Which Eventually Leads To His Freedom

 

Ricky Dority now spends his days playing with his grandchildren, tending to chickens, and working in his son's yard, a stark contrast to his recent past. 

Just a few months ago, he was confined to a cell, serving a life sentence at Oklahoma's Joseph Harp Correctional Center for a crime he claims he didn't commit. It seemed like he had no hope of release until he used his pandemic relief funds to hire a determined private investigator.

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This investigator, along with students from the Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University, which is dedicated to rectifying wrongful convictions in the state, uncovered inconsistencies in the state's account of a 1997 cold-case killing. 

As a result, Dority's conviction was vacated by a Sequoyah County judge in June.

Now, the 65-year-old enjoys life on a 5-acre property in a tranquil neighborhood with upscale homes in the forested hills of the Arkansas River Valley outside Fort Smith. "If you've spent many years away, you don't take life for granted anymore," he says.

Dority is one of nearly 3,400 individuals who have been exonerated across the country since 1989, with the majority of cases involving murder convictions. In Oklahoma, there have been over 43 exonerations during that period, and three more this year.

These cases shed light on a significant problem within the judicial system, where many old convictions were the result of overworked defense attorneys, inadequate forensic work, overenthusiastic prosecutors, and outdated investigative methods. 

This issue is particularly critical in Oklahoma, given the state's history of sending individuals to death row, where 11 inmates have been exonerated since 1981, prompting consideration of a death penalty moratorium by a Republican-led legislative panel.

In Oklahoma County, Glynn Ray Simmons was released after nearly 50 years in prison, including time on death row, when a judge determined that prosecutors failed to disclose evidence, including a police report suggesting other suspects. 

Just this week, Perry Lott, who spent over 30 years in prison, had his rape and burglary conviction dismissed in Pontotoc County after new DNA testing excluded him as the perpetrator. Pontotoc County has faced intense scrutiny for a series of wrongful convictions in the 1980s, documented in books like John Grisham's "The Innocent Man."

The most common causes of wrongful convictions include eyewitness misidentification, misapplication of forensic science, false confessions, coerced pleas, and official misconduct, often involving police or prosecutors, according to the Innocence Project, a national organization based in New York.

In Dority's case, he claimed he was wrongfully accused by an overzealous sheriff and a state prosecutor eager to solve a 1997 cold-case murder. Investigators, who reopened the case in 2014, obtained a coerced confession from another man, Rex Robbins. 

Robbins implicated Dority, who was in federal prison on a firearms conviction at the time. However, Dority was able to provide paperwork proving he had been arrested on the day of the murder and couldn't have committed the crime.

The case took a turn when Dority used his federal COVID-19 relief check to hire a private investigator, Bobby Staton, who discovered numerous inconsistencies in the case. Staton then enlisted the assistance of the Oklahoma Innocence Project. 

Their investigation prompted Robbins to recant his statement implicating Dority, and it was further revealed that the informant who had testified didn't even live at the location where he claimed Dority had arrived in bloody clothing.

Dority's original attorneys were criticized for not discovering these crucial facts. The judge dismissed the case and gave prosecutors 90 days to decide whether they would retry him, which has been extended. Dority remains confident in his innocence and is not concerned about additional forensic testing.

This case highlights the need for a closer look at the justice system and the importance of addressing wrongful convictions. Dority's release has given him a newfound appreciation for life and a determination to help others who may be wrongfully imprisoned in Oklahoma.

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