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It was a hug 27 years in the making for a man and his mother.

Benjamin Cole, 47, embraced Charlene Diaz as he left the courtroom Wednesday, ending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he always maintained he did not commit.

“Not really being able to really hug my child for over 20 years, I cannot express the pain that I feel as a mother knowing that he’s not deserving of that,” Diaz told the Greensboro News and Record before the release.

Cole was convicted of the 1998 murder of Calvin Jenkins, who was shot in his Greensboro apartment during a robbery. Cole always maintained his innocence, saying he was in Ohio at the time of the murder.

Duke Law’s Wrongful Conviction’s Clinic took on the case in 2021. Jamie Lau, supervising attorney and clinical professor of law, says when his team first reviewed the case, they determined the defense had not had access to the Greensboro Police Department’s investigation file. When discovery was received, the file contained records supporting Cole’s alibi that he was in Ohio.

“Investigators from the Greensboro Police Department knew all along that evidence in its file contradicted testimony at Mr. Cole’s trial and supported his alibi, yet this evidence was concealed for more than two decades while Mr. Cole was left to die in prison as a result of his life sentence,” Lau said. “He did not receive a fair trial, and the suppression of this evidence was clearly an effort to bolster an already weak case.”

Lau’s team in the Duke Law clinic, working with attorney Robyn Sanders and the firm Troutman, Pepper, Locke, filed a post-conviction motion to vacate Cole’s conviction. Among the claims raised was that one of the state’s original witnesses, who was in the apartment at the time of the shooting and initially identified Cole as a suspect from more than 1,000 potential-suspect photos, changed her claim after hearing Cole speak. Lau says Cole has a Jamaican accent and the witness said the suspect did not speak with such an accent.

“One of the more blatant violations of Mr. Cole’s rights at trial was the prosecutor concealing that the state’s primary witness told him that Mr. Cole could not have been one of the assailants because of his accent,” Lau said. “The witness shared this with the prosecutor after her testimony, so he told her not to worry about it and sent her on her way. Had the jury known that the witness almost immediately disavowed her identification of Mr. Cole, he would have never spent nearly 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.”

At an evidentiary hearing held in May 2025, two witnesses who testified for the state at trial testified that the assailants did not have a Jamaican accent and that Cole could not have been involved in Jenkins’s death. Lau says there was no physical evidence in the case and, other than these two witnesses, no other evidence was offered against Cole to establish his guilt.

After the evidentiary hearing, prosecutors offered Cole the chance to enter an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to accept punishment while maintaining his or her innocence. Cole accepted the time-served agreement and entered the plea in front of Judge Susan Bray in Greensboro, saying, “I’m innocent and I just want to be home.”

“Cole’s decision is understandable and we are overjoyed that he will not have to spend another day away from his family,” said James E. Coleman, clinic director and John S. Bradway Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke. “Prison is a difficult place, and it is hard to say no to an agreement that guarantees your freedom. Mr. Cole achieved his freedom, but the state denied him justice.”

 “We, of course, believe he should have been fully exonerated, but today is a day to celebrate Cole’s freedom and rejoice in the fact that he is back home where he belongs.” Lau said.

Ali Schmidt JD ’25 worked on the case as a student at Duke Law. Schmidt even traveled to Ohio to research evidence related to Cole’s alibi.

“Benjamin Cole’s case was the first case I was assigned during the Wrongful Convictions Clinic in the Spring of 2024. From day one, Mr. Cole’s innocence was clear,” Schmidt said. “Today, I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Cole reunited with his family after enduring 27 years of unconscionable injustice. I’m deeply honored to have contributed to the investigation and legal advocacy that — together with Mr. Cole’s resilience and his family’s unwavering support — led to his freedom.”

Other Duke Law students who worked on the case include Cameron Burns ’23, Gina Garrett ’23, AJ Peterson ’24, Yelena Wang ’23, Elizabeth Cox ’24, Hannah Wolfe ’25, Dillon Johnson ’26, and Britney Slimovitch LLM ’25.

Cole’s family expressed gratitude for the work of the Wrongful Convictions Clinic.                          

“We felt that no one would listen to us when reaching out for help in Benjamin’s case,” Britney Butler, Cole’s sister, said. “We are so grateful that we were finally heard by the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at Duke Law, and we appreciate every student that did anything, big or small, to help bring Benjamin home.”

The Wrongful Convictions Clinic has helped secure more than a dozen prison releases since its founding in 2008.