In 2001, Devonia Inman was convicted of the September 1998 armed robbery and murder of a Taco Bell manager in Adel, Georgia.  He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. There was no physical evidence linking Devonia to the crime. He had an alibi. The only evidence against him at trial came from witnesses who recanted at and after trial and from an incentivized eyewitness who received a $5,000 reward for her testimony -- testimony that was directly disputed by another witness.

Jurors heard from a jailhouse informant who said Inman told him he killed Brown, but the inmate later said he was coerced into turning on Inman. Prosecutors also called upon a friend of Inman's who initially said she saw Inman with a lot of cash the morning after the killing. But she also recanted. A witness who did not retract her testimony was a newspaper delivery woman who said she saw Inman driving Brown’s car shortly after the shooting. But a man standing next to her at that time has said it was too dark for her to have identified Inman. Inman’s lawyers tried to call on witnesses who said another man, Hercules Brown, told them he committed the murder. (Hercules Brown is not related to the victim.) But Superior Court Judge Buster McConnell did not let the jury hear their testimony. Years later, DNA testing was conducted to see who might have been wearing a homemade mask found inside Donna Brown’s car. The GBI crime lab matched the DNA on the mask to Hercules Brown.”