Around 3 p.m. on January 9, local reporters began to gather in front of the Hillsborough County Jail on Orient Road. Word had it Dean McKee was about to be released, and no one wanted to miss it.
In 1989, McKee went to prison for a 1988 murder he says he didn't commit. Several months ago, a judge overturned his sentence when presented with DNA evidence that proved the victim — Isaiah Walker — had fought off someone, but it wasn't him. Additionally, three of the four witnesses against Dean had recanted their testimony and new testimony had come to light, implicating someone other than McKee.
The state is appealing Judge Lisa Campbell's vacation of McKee's sentence and conviction, and it's taken several months for McKee's defense — The Innocence Project of Florida — to convince a judge to release him on an appeal bond. The first time they went before a judge, Assistant State Attorney Megan Newcomb told Judge Nazaretian that he might lack jurisdiction to rule, arguing that as the case was on appeal, the judge couldn’t make any rulings.
The second time before Judge Nazaretian, Miller successfully argued that Nazaretian could indeed set an appeal bond; Jan. 9 was the date they agreed upon for sentencing.
And so, on Jan. 9, the third time was the charm. The Innocence Project of Florida and the state reached an agreement and the judge released McKee on his own recognizance. After the hearing in downtown Tampa, McKee was transported back to the Orient Road Jail to get processed for release. McKee's family, friends, and legal representation filled the benches outside the jail, waiting for him. His mother draped a freshly dry cleaned shirt and pants over the back of one such bench — soon her son would need a change of clothes.
"He deserves to be walking out those doors, that's for sure," she says. Any minute now…
Six hours later, at 8:53 p.m., McKee was escorted out the doors of Hillsborough County jail by his lawyer, Seth Miller. The first thing he did was embrace his mother, Kathy, and his fiancé, Danie. Then he worked his way around the crowd, hugging family and old friends.
With his new curfew in place — McKee must be back in Pinellas County by 10 p.m. nightly, now wears an ankle monitor, cannot contact any trial witnesses from his 1988 trial and cannot drink alcohol — there was little time for him to talk to press, but he did have a few parting words for us:
"It's been a long road. Some wonderful people kept me strong and kept me focused. When you open your heart, some amazing things happen. I'm grateful and I'm blessed."
McKee's battle for freedom has taken decades and, he told CL, couldn't have happened without the Innocence Project of Florida and his fiancé.
"That's an amazing lady right there," he said via video visitation when CL visited him in jail several weeks ago. (Editor's note: at the request of McKee's counsel, CL agreed not to publish any information from visits to the jail pre-release.)
Danie Cutler, his fiancé and high school friend, told CL that McKee trusted Seth Miller implicitly, seeing him and the Innocence Project of Florida as a lifeline.
Read our coverage of Dean McKee's battle for freedom here.
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2018.