Dontae Sharpe
August 2019, Dontae Sharpe returned home after serving almost 26 years in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit. His exoneration came after years of collaborative strategic work between the Pitt County Branch of the NAACP, the NC NAACP State Conference, SpiritHouse Inc, Color of Change, the Duke University Wrongful Convictions Clinic and Forward Justice. In 2021, after months of community organizing and advocacy, Dontae finally received a full pardon of innocence from Governor Cooper.
He now serves as Forward Justice’s Community Liaison & Criminal Justice Policy Advisor, providing thought leadership, strategic insight & community partnership support across multiple campaigns to dismantle systems that disenfranchise people who have had contact with the criminal legal system. Stay up to date on Dontae and his work on his new YouTube Channel, Living is for Everybody (L.I.F.E.) with Dontae Sharpe