Former Drexel employee wrongfully convicted, set to be released

Former Drexel Employee Wrongfully Convicted, Set to be Free After 30 Years

OTHER: JUL 19 Drexel University — Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

A former Drexel University security guard wrongfully convicted of killing a student could walk out of prison a free man as early as Wednesday.

David Dickson Jr. had been sentenced to life without parole for the 1984 murder of Deborah Wilson, a Drexel University student who was found strangled inside a building on campus.

In the result of a wrongful conviction that a Philadelphia judge overturned on Tuesday, ruling that David Dickson Jr. will be released from custody.

“I’m just happy that it’s over and he’ll be returning home. I just can’t hold back the tears,” said his brother, Kevin Dickson.

“He’s innocent. He’s really innocent. He didn’t commit this crime,” added another brother, Michael Avery.

Dickson, who was a security guard at Drexel at the time, was convicted using the testimony of an informant named John Hall. In has since been discovered that Hall was untruthful in this case and others.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office agreed that the testimony was false and reached a plea agreement.

After more than three decades in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, Dickson Jr. will now return home.

Dickson’s lawyer says in an effort to get him out sooner, due to his health, Dickson entered what’s known as an Alford Plea. That’s when a defendant maintains his innocence but acknowledges the prosecution does have enough evidence for a possible conviction.

That plea involved a lesser charge of 3rd degree murder. The judge issued a sentence, which was covered by the time Dickson had already served.