Crystal Mangum, the woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape nearly two decades ago, was released from a North Carolina prison Friday morning after serving time for the unrelated murder of her boyfriend.
Ms. Mangum, 47, walked out of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh just before 10 a.m. and was escorted by a corrections vehicle to Durham, where she will live with a friend, according to corrections spokesman Brad Deen. She will be required to report to a parole officer for the next nine to 12 months.
She had been serving a 14-to-18-year sentence for the second-degree murder of Reginald Daye, whom she fatally stabbed in April 2011. She was convicted of the charge in 2013.
Ms. Mangum first made national headlines in 2006 when she accused David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann of raping her while she was performing as an exotic dancer at an off-campus Duke party. The allegations set off a firestorm that roiled the university and the Durham community. After the players’ defense team exposed inconsistencies in her account, then-North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped all charges against the three men in 2007.
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who had aggressively pursued the case, was disbarred that same year for lying in court and withholding evidence that could have cleared the accused players. Former Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler, who had spent 16 seasons with the program, lost his job over the scandal and later sued the university.
Ms. Mangum did not publicly acknowledge fabricating the rape allegations until 2024, when she appeared on the podcast “Let’s Talk with Kat” and admitted she had lied.
In addition to the murder conviction, Ms. Mangum had also been convicted of setting a fire that nearly burned down her home while her three children were inside — an incident that occurred roughly a year before Daye’s death.
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