Player gets football scholarship after prison
ROME, Georgia (AP) -- A high school football star whose college career was derailed by a rape conviction will attend Hampton University in Virginia this fall on an athletic scholarship.
Marcus Dixon spent 15 months in prison after being convicted of aggravated child molestation, a felony, and statutory rape, a misdemeanor. He was accused of assaulting a 15-year-old classmate in a trailer behind Floyd County's Pepperell High School in February 2003, when he was 18.
A jury acquitted Dixon of rape, but he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the molestation charge. Some called the case an injustice because Dixon is black and the girl is white, although prosecutors denied that race played a role.
On May 3, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the felony conviction and its 10-year sentence.
An A student at Pepperell, Dixon had a scholarship offer to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, before his arrest. Vanderbilt rescinded its offer.
Dixon already is working out at defensive tackle in Hampton, about 20 miles north of Norfolk, Virginia.
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