Clay Chabot

“A part of me is irritated, angry and disgruntled because I went above and beyond for this country and was repaid by being convicted of a crime I didn’t commit.”

Clay Chabot, a former operations specialist for the U.S Navy, maintained his innocence throughout the 22 years he spent in prison for the 1986 murder of a young Texas woman. After post-conviction DNA tests excluded Chabot and identified another man as the source of critical evidence from the scene, Chabot’s conviction was vacated in 2009. Despite the powerful new DNA and other evidence of Chabot’s innocence, prosecutors announced they would put him on trial a second time. Having already served more than two decades of a life sentence, Chabot accepted a plea bargain, agreeing to plead guilty to the murder in exchange for a sentence of time served. His plea bargain would allow him to go home for good.