Tennessee Couple Cleared of Wrongful Murder and Rape Convictions That Sentenced Them to Life in Prison

74-year-old Joyce Watkins and the late Charlie Dunn have been exonerated after they were wrongfully convicted for the murder and rape of Watkin’s 4-year-old great-niece.

On January 6, Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton overturned Watkins and Dunn’s convictions. Dunn died behind bars in 2015 after the couple was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison for murder, along with a 60-year sentence for aggravated rape.

"I'm just happy to be out of this mess, which has cost me half of my life for nothing," Watkins said per a news release from the Tennessee Innocence Project, one of the groups that reviewed her case. "But I'll get over it. I thank God for me being able to do this."

After Watkins and Dunn picked up the child at the home of another relative in Kentucky on the morning of June 27, 1987, Watkins took the unresponsive girl to a Nashville hospital hours later. The child died the next day.

After emergency room doctors determined that the girl had suffered a severe vaginal injury and head trauma, a medical examiner later testified that the injuries must have occurred during the nine hours when the child was with Watkins and Dunn.

However, Watkins and Dunn always maintained their innocence.

Following Dunn’s death in 2015, Watkins was granted parole and released the next year. She was nonetheless determined to clear her name, as she was a convicted killer required to register with the state as a sex offender.

After she contacted the Tennessee Innocence Project, the group shared its initial findings with the prosecutor's office, who opened their own case as part of their Conviction Review Unit.

While reviewing the case, both parties discovered that during the two months before the girl died, she may have been abused in the home where Watkins and Dunn had picked her up. However, a child welfare worker had sided with the relative in the home who explained that the physical abuse was from "playground injuries.”

The two groups also found flaws in the original prosecution’s case, and determined that lawyers may have allegedly withheld and destroyed evidence that was favorable toward Watkins and Dunn.

Additionally, they cited medical advances that debunked the coroner's claims about when the child's injuries had occurred.

Judge Dalton reviewed both petitions and noted in her ruling that the medical examiner, Dr. Gretel Harlan, later acknowledged mistakes in her methodology.

"The inaccurate medical opinions, presented in the context of erroneous circumstantial evidence, led the jury and court to rely on inaccurate and misleading information," the judge wrote. "In short, the evidence in this case supports the claim that Joyce Watkins and Charlie Dunn are innocent and were convicted of crimes they did not commit."

While speaking to WTVF, Dunn's daughter, Jackie Dunn, spoke out about her father’s exoneration, saying, “I wish my daddy was here to witness this day. He knew he was innocent, he knew he did not commit those crimes."

Sadly, Jason Gichner, the Tennessee Innocence Project’s senior counsel, says the case now remains unsolved.