CLAY COUNTY – Even after more than a decade behind bars for murder, Tameshia Shelton’s hope that she would be relieved of her conviction never wavered.
That faith paid off Wednesday when 16th Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens officially dismissed her charges without prejudice.
“Now I can breathe,” Shelton told The Dispatch Wednesday. “ I can actually breathe. I know I was (out on bail), but I still had that. ‘OK, it’s not over until he finally signs it.’ So now it’s like me and my loved ones, my family we can actually … just relax.”
After more than 11 years in prison, 16th Circuit Court District Attorney Scott Colom in September moved to dismiss the charges against Shelton for the murder of Shelton’s sister’s boyfriend, Danelle Young. The motion was made for several reasons, including a recanted pathologist report from the deputy chief state medical examiner at the time that came out during post-conviction relief hearings held in 2021.
Colom’s motion also noted the recording of a 911 call from Shelton made in hopes of helping the victim and an alleged suicide note by Young that was never entered into evidence during the initial trial.
Sandra Levick, one of Shelton’s attorneys with the Mississippi Innocence Project, in a statement issued Wednesday thanked Colom for his efforts to revisit the case and to dismiss the charges against Shelton.
“At last this case that should have never been brought is over,” Levick wrote. “Ms. Shelton was convicted of a murder that never happened at a trial that was not fair by a jury that never heard all the facts.”
Because the case was dismissed without prejudice, charges could be refiled again. Mississippi has no statute of limitations for murder.
In October 2009, Shelton found Young dead from a gunshot wound outside her trailer. Young was found near a handgun belonging to Shelton, which she told deputies he asked to borrow. Shelton was charged with his murder in 2011.
A Clay County jury found Shelton guilty of Young’s murder in 2015. She then spent the next decade appealing that ruling, arguing that Young committed suicide. The argument hinged on Shelton’s discovery of the letter allegedly written by Young, which she believes showed he was suicidal at the time of his death.
That letter was never entered into evidence during Shelton’s trial.
Her conviction was overturned by the Mississippi Court of Appeals in December in a decision citing the deputy chief medical examiner’s recanted statement and ineffective assistance of counsel during the initial case.
Now with her charges dismissed, Shelton could seek up to $50,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment she served, up to 10 years or $500,000.
To be eligible for that restitution, according to state law, Shelton will have to file a suit in Clay County Circuit Court in the next three years and prove her innocence and that she did not commit perjury or fabricate evidence.
Shelton said she had not discussed seeking restitution with Levick as of Wednesday afternoon and was unsure if she would file a suit.
Though she would like to eventually participate in advocacy work related to prison reform and wrongful imprisonment in Mississippi, for now she hopes to reconnect with her children and family and make up for lost time.
“This is a slow journey for me,” Shelton said. “The most important thing is trying to reunite with my children and my loved ones because they suffered also. So we have to get to know each other again. And that’s going to be the most challenging part of it all, because that’s 11 years that the state cannot make up, because they have to learn who I am.”
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