Curtis Killman

Tulsa World Reporter

An Arkansas man who used his pandemic relief funds to clear his name in an Oklahoma murder has filed a federal lawsuit against those he claims are responsible for his illegal imprisonment.

Ricky Dority, 67, filed the lawsuit Sept. 23 in Muskogee federal court, naming as defendants the Sequoyah County Board of Commissioners and Sequoyah County sheriff, records show.

The lawsuit claims the two entities’ actions that caused his imprisonment were in violation of his civil rights.

A Sequoyah County jury convicted Dority Dec. 8, 2015, in the 1997 beating death of Mitchell Nixon, 28. He was subsequently sentenced to life without parole.

Dority claims the sheriff at the time failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, coerced false testimony and engaged in ot

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