Why wrongfully convicted man Daryl Dwayne Holloway should be awarded $1 million

A Milwaukee man who spent 24 years in prison for crimes he did not commit could receive $1 million if the Legislature approves the state board’s request to award him the said amount.

According to the Associated Press, the claims board on Thursday awarded Daryl Dwayne Holloway $25,000 – which is the maximum amount approved by law. He also received an additional amount of just over $100,000 for attorneys’ fees. But because the maximum amount Holloway was awarded “is not adequate in this case,” the state board wants the Legislature to give the green light for an additional $975,000 payment.

In order for Holloway to receive the said amount, the Legislature has to pass a bill to approve the payment. Explaining why Holloway deserves the payment, the state board said the Black man spent the most productive earning years of his life behind bars, and as such, experienced “significant and measurable economic damages.” The state board added that Holloway lost multiple relationships and continues to suffer psychological and emotional trauma. Holloway was released at the age of 48.

In 1993, Holloway received a 120-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of committing two home invasion sexual assault offenses. But per the claims board’s summary of the case, Holloway was sentenced despite the fact that no physical evidence connected him to both cases. Officials did not also conduct any DNA testing at both crime scenes, the Associated Press reported. And phone evidence and verified alibi witness testimony determined he was at another place at the time of the assaults.

DNA testing for the first case was conducted after the Wisconsin Innocence Project took up his case. Holloway was released from prison in 2016 after it was established he wasn’t the assailant.

And though the claims board stated that the victim in the second case is adamant Holloway was the perpetrator, evidence reveals she mistakenly identified him. The victim is said to have identified Holloway through a police lineup and voice identification. But the claims board cited that has been proven to be inconsistent.

The charges that were brought against Holloway in connection to the second assault were ultimately dropped by the Milwaukee County attorney’s office in 2016 on the grounds that they could not meet the burden of proof.

But after his release, Holloway was arrested and charged in connection with a home burglary incident in 2017. He was sentenced to five years in prison the following year after he pleaded no contest to two charges, the Associated Press reported.

He was also arrested in 2017 after he was accused of trying to get underage girls to enter his car in Janesville.