In the Navy SEALs, no rule is more sacred than this: you never leave your swim buddy. For Dustin “Dusty” Turner, that bond would change the course of his life forever.

In 1995, Dusty and his swim buddy Billy Brown went out for what was meant to be a simple night of drinks. By the next morning, a young woman by the name of Jennifer Evans was dead, eight days later Billy and Dusty are arrested and eventually both are convicted of the crime.

Despite overwhelming evidence that his Navy SEAL Swim-Buddy who later confessed to the crime was the true perpetrator, Turner was sentenced to 82 years without the possibility of parole. The actual killer who was also convicted of attempted rape, received a lesser sentence of 72 years.

The case took a dramatic turn in 1999 when Brown confessed that he alone had killed Jennifer and stated that Dusty had no role in her death. Neither Dusty, the jury that convicted him nor the public learned of this confession until 2002. Shortly thereafter, Dusty filed a petition for a Writ of Innocence. At an evidentiary hearing on the petition in 2008, Brown provided in detail testimony that laid bare his own guilt for Jennifer’s murder.

Dusty also testified at the hearing. Both men gave the same account of what happened that Dusty gave his Warrant Officer eight days after Jennifer’s death.

The court would rule the following "this court finally finds that Mr. Brown is credible in his assertion that he acted independently in murdering the victim and that Mr. Turner had no role in the murder or in the restraining of the victim." 

Based on the findings of Judge Lowe, a 2 to 1 panel of Judges at the Virginia Court of Appeals granted Dusty a Writ of Innocence holding that he was, in fact, “actually innocent” and should be set free.

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