Breaking News: Crystal Mangum, Notorious Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser, Freed After Serving Time for Reginald Daye Murder

In Durham, North Carolina, Crystal Mangum gained her freedom from prison on Friday morning, following her conviction for murder.

In 2013, Mangum was found guilty of second-degree murder for the 2011 stabbing of her boyfriend, Reginald Daye, and received a sentence ranging from 14 to 18 years. She maintained that the stabbing was an act of self-defense.

Previously, in 2010, Mangum faced charges of attempted murder involving another partner, Milton Walker, but those charges were eventually dismissed.

Mangum became widely known during the infamous 2006 Duke lacrosse case, which attracted national attention. The State Attorney General’s Office later determined there was insufficient evidence of an assault, leading to the exoneration of the accused players in 2007.

In 2024, Mangum confessed to having fabricated the allegations in that high-profile case.

Mangum was released from the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh. Just before 10 a.m., our Raleigh sister station, ABC11 Eyewitness News, saw her escorted by corrections officials to Durham, where she will stay at a friend’s home.

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.”