It was all smiles and joy for a man whose conviction was overturned on June 2, 40 years after being found guilty of burglary and sexual assault of two children.

Mallory Nicholson, 75, was 35 years old when he was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the charges. He was released on parole in 2003 after serving 21 years and was required to register as a sex offender. Nicholson, however, maintained his innocence.

Forty years after Nicholson’s initial conviction, Judge Chika Anyiam of Criminal District Court 7 has now declared the 75-year-old innocent of all charges.

“On behalf of the state, the justice system, the judiciary, all the players that contributed to this atrocity, I apologize,” Judge Anyia told Nicholson.

As reported by The Dallas Express, the quest for Nicholson’s conviction to be overturned began in 2019 after the Innocence Project asked Cynthia Garza, chief of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), to review Nicholson’s case.

A man approached two boys on June 12, 1982, and asked them to help him get into an apartment. The man promised to give the boys $5 if they carried out the task.

Once inside, the man stole a few things from the apartment and sexually assaulted the two boys.

The boys would go on to identify Nicholson as the man who assaulted them. He was subsequently tried and sentenced to jail for the crime even though several witnesses put him at his wife’s funeral when the crime was committed. He has maintained his innocence since.

Garza’s office found exculpatory evidence, including undisclosed information by prosecutors that suggested someone else committed the crime. 

One of the boys testified in court that the man who attacked them had told them he was in a rush to attend his wife’s funeral. The boy’s testimony became the centerpiece of the prosecutors’ argument. 

However, prosecutors did not disclose the fact that the boy’s mother and grandmother knew Nicholson’s wife and were aware of her funeral arrangements.

“That evidence should have been given over, it should have been considered by a grand jury. He should never have been indicted, to be quite honest with you, and certainly never convicted,” Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said.

Nicholson, entitled to about $2 million in compensation, was present in court with his second wife when Judge Anyiam declared him innocent and vacated his sentence.

“We apologize for what happened to you,” Garza told Nicholson.

Nicholson said he had been waiting for the day a long time ago. The 75-year-old said he and his wife are God-fearing people and that he left everything in God’s hand.

“The words from the district attorney and the judge mean a world to me, and it takes a load off my mind from 40 years,” Nicholson said. “It was just a long fight and wait. But I’ve always had hope that a day would come for me.”

Nicholson took the moments following his exoneration to remember his father, who died regretting not being able to afford a lawyer that could fight for his son’s innocence.

“Today, I look up to Heaven, and I can say, ‘Dad, it has happened. I have been exonerated,'” Nicholson said.

Nicholson’s attorney, Adnan Sultan of the National Innocence Project, lamented his client’s inability to get jobs since his release.

“He has been out, but he hasn’t been free,” Sultan told a news conference following his client’s exoneration. “And he has had a rotating cast of parole officers who have set things up in a way that was designed for him to fail.”

According to the Creuzot’s office, Nicholson’s exoneration is the 30th since 2007, when the Conviction Integrity Unit was created, and the 42nd in Dallas County since the passage of state law in 2001 expanded access to DNA testing for people convicted of crimes. 

Innocence Project attorney Gary Udashen commented on how Dallas County’s justice system has improved over time. 

“The same DA’s office that did the things that it did that caused Mr. Nicholson to lose 40 years of his life is the same DA’s office with new leadership that’s correcting the mistakes that were made back then,” Udashen said.

As provided by Texas law, Nicholson is entitled to $80,000 for each year he served behind bars and another $25,000 for every year he remained on parole or had to register as a sex offender. 

He is also eligible to obtain group health benefit plan coverage through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, just like every other department employee. The coverage would last for the time he served behind bars, on parole, and had to register as a sex offender.