Crystal Mangum walked free from a North Carolina correctional facility on Friday morning following her conviction for murder.

In 2013, Mangum was found guilty of second-degree murder for fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Reginald Daye, in 2011. Her sentence ranged from 14 to 18 years. Mangum maintained that her actions were in self-defense.

Prior to this, she had faced accusations of attempted murder in 2010 concerning another boyfriend, Milton Walker, though these charges were eventually dismissed.

Notably, Mangum was a central figure in the controversial Duke lacrosse team sexual assault case that captured national attention in 2006. The State Attorney General’s Office later determined there was no substantial evidence supporting the allegations, resulting in the dismissal of all charges against the players in 2007.

In 2024, she confessed to making false claims regarding the incident.

After her release from the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh, Mangum was seen leaving the facility just before 10 a.m. by ABC11 Eyewitness News, a Raleigh affiliate. She was accompanied by officials to Durham, where she plans to reside with a friend.

The Duke lacrosse case, though proven false, remains a defining moment in national conversations about race, class, and the justice system.

Former ABC11 reporter Tamara Gibbs-Franklin, who covered Mangum’s legal troubles extensively, noted the case’s underlying tensions of race, class, and town-versus-gown dynamics in Durham.

She said: “There was a lot going on underneath the surface. This case had racial undertones. It had class undertones…You also have a city that is really economically struggling for some communities and so there was tension there.”