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Tag: innocence project

  • Marcellus Williams’ Death: Political Execution of a Black Man Carried Out by the Supreme Court

    Marcellus Williams’ Death: Political Execution of a Black Man Carried Out by the Supreme Court

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    In a damning display of justice gone wrong, Marcellus Williams, a Missouri death row inmate, was executed, despite overwhelming evidence suggesting his innocence. His death by lethal injection has sparked outrage, with the blame falling squarely on the shoulders of former President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, and the conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who refused to halt the execution.

    Williams, 55, was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle in her St. Louis apartment. However, no DNA evidence ever tied him to the crime. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which urged a stay of execution, had supported his legal team in its tenacious fight for clemency. The victim’s own family had requested Williams’ sentence be commuted to life without parole, writing, “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”

    Yet, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court—Chief Justice John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—voted to deny Williams a stay. Their decision condemned an innocent man to death, and it is a stark reminder of how deeply broken the justice system has become under their influence. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, recognizing the glaring miscarriage of justice.

    This execution didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is a direct result of the political power play that Trump and McConnell orchestrated. Trump’s appointment of three ultra-conservative justices—Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett—solidified a Supreme Court more interested in ideology than fairness. McConnell’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s 2016 nominee, Merrick Garland, to replace Justice Antonin Scalia was a pivotal move in ensuring this conservative stronghold. He later rushed through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation weeks before Trump’s election loss, fully aware of the long-term consequences.

    Gov. Mike Parson, a staunch MAGA Republican, ignored every plea for mercy, including those from the prosecutor’s office and over a million citizens and faith leaders who called for clemency. Despite abundant evidence of Williams’ innocence, Parson’s decision to carry out the execution was viewed by many as cruel and motivated by bloodlust.

    “This was a lynching. Make no mistake, this was state-sanctioned murder of an innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared. “Governor Parson had the responsibility to save a life, and he didn’t. When DNA evidence exonerates a man, capital punishment is not justice—it is murder. Trump, McConnell, and the conservative Supreme Court justices now have blood on their hands.”

    Johnson added that Williams’ final moments were a tragic reminder of the human cost of this injustice. Reportedly, Williams lay conversing with a spiritual advisor as the lethal injection took effect. His chest heaved a few times before he went still, as his son and two attorneys watched helplessly from another room. No one from Gayle’s family was present to witness the execution—likely because they had asked for his life to be spared.

    Cori Bush, Missouri’s Democratic Representative and staunch opponent of the death penalty, minced no words in condemning Parson’s role. “Governor Parson didn’t just end Marcellus Williams’ life—he demonstrated how the death penalty is wielded without any regard for innocence, compassion, equity, or humanity,” Bush stated. “He ignored the facts, the evidence, and the pleas from all sides. The so-called ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard was tossed out, because Marcellus was a Black man in a system rigged against him.”

    Many also said the hypocrisy of the so-called “pro-life” conservatives was laid bare. A U.S. Army veteran and activist, Charlotte Clymer blasted the justices responsible, saying, “These people don’t care about life. They only care about control.”

    Williams’ case, much like so many others involving Black men and the death penalty, exposed the deep racial bias embedded in America’s legal system. His attorneys had raised significant concerns about racial discrimination during jury selection, and the lack of credible evidence—especially DNA that didn’t match Williams—only underscored the injustice of his conviction. Yet, the political machinery of Trump, McConnell, Parson, and the Supreme Court moved forward without pause, ensuring his death.

    As Bush and others stated, Williams’s death wasn’t just an issue of a broken justice system—this was a political execution. Like Parson, the U.S. Supreme Court chose to ignore the evidence, the pleas, and the humanity of Williams. A litany of social media users posted comments demanding that Williams’ blood is on the hands of Republicans, and the country must reckon with the brutal truth that our highest court, and the leaders who enable it, can no longer be trusted to protect the innocent.

    Williams’ execution, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, is a searing indictment of a broken system where political power and racial bias outweigh truth and justice, Bush noted. ‘This was not just an execution,” she railed. “This was a state-sponsored lynching, and every person responsible for it must be held accountable.’”

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    Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

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  • Michigan Supreme Court orders new trial for mother in 2006 shaken baby case

    Michigan Supreme Court orders new trial for mother in 2006 shaken baby case

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    A Wayne County woman who spent nearly 20 years in prison for allegedly shaking her child to death has been granted a new trial after the doctor who performed the original autopsy changed his opinion on the cause of death.

    Chazlee Lemons was sentenced to life in prison in 2006 after a judge found her guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her 11-week-old child Nakita Lemon.

    In a 5-2 decision, the Michigan Supreme Court determined it’s probable that a “jury would have a reasonable doubt” about Lemon’s guilt.

    At the original trial, Dr. Bader Cassin, who performed the autopsy, classified the death as shaken baby syndrome, saying the child’s brain was swollen, and she had retinal hemorrhages.

    Cassin changed his opinion in 2017, saying Nakita, who had experienced breathing problems since birth, may have choked on baby formula. During an evidentiary hearing, Cassin said other experts have weighed in and “demonstrated that the forces in shaking are insufficient to produce such an injury.”

    Cassin concluded the manner of death was “indeterminate,” so it could have been natural or accidental.

    A pediatrician, Dr. John Galaznik, also testified that Nakita “had experienced a choking/aspiration event” and that the evidence did “not support an allegation of abusive shaking.”

    The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office produced its own experts, who said shaken baby syndrome was the likely cause of death.

    In a statement to Metro Times on Wednesday, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office plans to retry the case.

    “This child went through unspeakable trauma,” Worthy said. “We are very disheartened by the Michigan Supreme Court majority’s opinion granting a new trial in Lemons. This is especially true in light of defendant’s admission to violently shaking the two-month old victim and the general consensus of the medical community accepting the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma.”

    The Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School represented Lemons.

    Last week, Metro Times launched “The Closer,” a series of stories about wrongful convictions.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • As he was about to go free, Missouri Supreme Court halts release of man with overturned conviction

    As he was about to go free, Missouri Supreme Court halts release of man with overturned conviction

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    The Missouri Supreme Court halted the immediate release Wednesday of a man whose murder conviction was overturned — just as the man was about to walk free.A St. Louis Circuit Court judge had ordered Christopher Dunn, now 52, to be released by 6 p.m. CDT Wednesday and threatened the prison warden with contempt if Dunn remained imprisoned. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been fighting Dunn’s release.The situation was chaotic as the deadline set by the judge approached. Corrections Department spokesperson Karen Pojmann told The Associated Press that Dunn was out of the prison facility and waiting for a ride. His wife told the AP she was on his way to pick him up. Minutes later, Pojmann corrected herself and said that while Dunn was signing paperwork to be released, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a ruling that put his freedom on hold.St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser overturned Dunn’s murder conviction Monday, citing evidence of “actual innocence” in the 1990 killing. He ordered Dunn’s immediate release then, but Bailey appealed, and the state Department of Corrections declined to release Dunn.St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore had filed a motion Wednesday urging the judge to immediately order Dunn’s freedom.“The Attorney General cannot unilaterally decide to ignore this Court’s Order,” Gore wrote.An attorney for the Department of Corrections told a lawyer in Gore’s office that Bailey advised the agency not to release Dunn until the appeal plays out, according to a court filing. When told it was improper to ignore a court order, the Department of Corrections attorney “responded that the Attorney General’s Office is legal counsel to the DOC and the DOC would be following the advice of counsel.”Dunn’s attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, the executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, expressed her frustration.“What is this bringing to taxpayers in Missouri? What is this use of our resources and our state’s time getting us?” she said. “All it’s doing is keeping innocent people in prison.”Dunn’s wife said while driving to the prison that they were numb when he didn’t get out earlier this week.“If you know a little about the story, you know we’ve had a lot of disappointments where we thought we’d finally get his freedom and it was snatched away,” Kira Dunn said. “So we were just bracing ourselves.”Dunn’s situation is similar to what happened to Sandra Hemme.The 64-year-old woman spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. A judge on June 14 cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She had been the longest held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to the National Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme.Appeals by Bailey — all the way up to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court with contempt of court on the table. Hemme was released later that day.The judge also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed on her own recognizance.Dunn, who is Black, was 18 in 1990 when 15-year-old Ricco Rogers was killed. Among the key evidence used to convict him of first-degree murder was testimony from two boys who were at the scene of the shooting. Both later recanted their testimony, saying they had been coerced by police and prosecutors.At an evidentiary hearing in 2020, another judge agreed that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on new evidence. But that judge, William Hickle, declined to exonerate Dunn, citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only death row inmates — not those like Dunn sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — could make a “freestanding” claim of actual innocence.A 2021 law now allows prosecutors to seek court hearings in cases with new evidence of a wrongful conviction.Although Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, lawyers for his office said at the hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was correct, even though they recanted as adults.He also raised opposition at a hearing for Lamar Johnson, who spent 28 years in prison for murder. Another St. Louis judge ruled in February 2023 that Johnson was wrongfully convicted, and he was freed.Another hearing begins Aug. 21 for death row inmate Marcellus Williams. Bailey’s office is opposing the challenge to Williams’ conviction, too. Timing is of the essence: Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24.Steven Puro, professor emeritus of political science at St. Louis University, said Bailey is in a highly competitive race for the attorney general position with the primary quickly approaching on Aug. 6.“Bailey is trying to show that he is, quote, ‘tough on crime,’ which is a very important Republican conservative position,” he said. “Clearly, he’s angering members of the judicial system that he will have to argue before in the future. But he’s making the strategic notion that he needs to get his name before the voters and try to use that to win the primary election.”Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and chief justice, agreed, saying it seems this has become political for Bailey.“But one of the things is that no matter what your beliefs are, if a court orders something to happen, it’s not your purview to say no,” he said. “The court has to be obeyed.”___Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas; Associated Press writer Summer Ballentine contributed from Columbia, Missouri.

    ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Video from: KSDK, KIRA DUNN, CNN via CNN Newsource) —

    The Missouri Supreme Court halted the immediate release Wednesday of a man whose murder conviction was overturned — just as the man was about to walk free.

    A St. Louis Circuit Court judge had ordered Christopher Dunn, now 52, to be released by 6 p.m. CDT Wednesday and threatened the prison warden with contempt if Dunn remained imprisoned. But Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been fighting Dunn’s release.

    The situation was chaotic as the deadline set by the judge approached. Corrections Department spokesperson Karen Pojmann told The Associated Press that Dunn was out of the prison facility and waiting for a ride. His wife told the AP she was on his way to pick him up. Minutes later, Pojmann corrected herself and said that while Dunn was signing paperwork to be released, the Missouri Supreme Court issued a ruling that put his freedom on hold.

    St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser overturned Dunn’s murder conviction Monday, citing evidence of “actual innocence” in the 1990 killing. He ordered Dunn’s immediate release then, but Bailey appealed, and the state Department of Corrections declined to release Dunn.

    St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore had filed a motion Wednesday urging the judge to immediately order Dunn’s freedom.

    “The Attorney General cannot unilaterally decide to ignore this Court’s Order,” Gore wrote.

    An attorney for the Department of Corrections told a lawyer in Gore’s office that Bailey advised the agency not to release Dunn until the appeal plays out, according to a court filing. When told it was improper to ignore a court order, the Department of Corrections attorney “responded that the Attorney General’s Office is legal counsel to the DOC and the DOC would be following the advice of counsel.”

    Dunn’s attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, the executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, expressed her frustration.

    “What is this bringing to taxpayers in Missouri? What is this use of our resources and our state’s time getting us?” she said. “All it’s doing is keeping innocent people in prison.”

    Dunn’s wife said while driving to the prison that they were numb when he didn’t get out earlier this week.

    “If you know a little about the story, you know we’ve had a lot of disappointments where we thought we’d finally get his freedom and it was snatched away,” Kira Dunn said. “So we were just bracing ourselves.”

    Dunn’s situation is similar to what happened to Sandra Hemme.

    The 64-year-old woman spent 43 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman in St. Joseph in 1980. A judge on June 14 cited evidence of “actual innocence” and overturned her conviction. She had been the longest held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to the National Innocence Project, which worked to free Hemme.

    Appeals by Bailey — all the way up to the Missouri Supreme Court — kept Hemme imprisoned at the Chillicothe Correctional Center. During a court hearing Friday, Judge Ryan Horsman said that if Hemme wasn’t released within hours, Bailey himself would have to appear in court with contempt of court on the table. Hemme was released later that day.

    The judge also scolded Bailey’s office for calling the warden and telling prison officials not to release Hemme after he ordered her to be freed on her own recognizance.

    Dunn, who is Black, was 18 in 1990 when 15-year-old Ricco Rogers was killed. Among the key evidence used to convict him of first-degree murder was testimony from two boys who were at the scene of the shooting. Both later recanted their testimony, saying they had been coerced by police and prosecutors.

    At an evidentiary hearing in 2020, another judge agreed that a jury would likely find Dunn not guilty based on new evidence. But that judge, William Hickle, declined to exonerate Dunn, citing a 2016 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that only death row inmates — not those like Dunn sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — could make a “freestanding” claim of actual innocence.

    A 2021 law now allows prosecutors to seek court hearings in cases with new evidence of a wrongful conviction.

    Although Bailey’s office is not required to oppose such efforts, lawyers for his office said at the hearing that initial testimony from two boys at the scene who identified Dunn as the shooter was correct, even though they recanted as adults.

    He also raised opposition at a hearing for Lamar Johnson, who spent 28 years in prison for murder. Another St. Louis judge ruled in February 2023 that Johnson was wrongfully convicted, and he was freed.

    Another hearing begins Aug. 21 for death row inmate Marcellus Williams. Bailey’s office is opposing the challenge to Williams’ conviction, too. Timing is of the essence: Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24.

    Steven Puro, professor emeritus of political science at St. Louis University, said Bailey is in a highly competitive race for the attorney general position with the primary quickly approaching on Aug. 6.

    “Bailey is trying to show that he is, quote, ‘tough on crime,’ which is a very important Republican conservative position,” he said. “Clearly, he’s angering members of the judicial system that he will have to argue before in the future. But he’s making the strategic notion that he needs to get his name before the voters and try to use that to win the primary election.”

    Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and chief justice, agreed, saying it seems this has become political for Bailey.

    “But one of the things is that no matter what your beliefs are, if a court orders something to happen, it’s not your purview to say no,” he said. “The court has to be obeyed.”

    ___

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas; Associated Press writer Summer Ballentine contributed from Columbia, Missouri.

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  • Could Scott Peterson go free? Innocence projects help exonerate hundreds of inmates

    Could Scott Peterson go free? Innocence projects help exonerate hundreds of inmates

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    (FOX40.COM) — Modesto resident Scott Peterson was supposed to spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2002 murder of his wife and unborn child, however, that sentence could soon change if an advocacy group has its way.  
    • Video Above: Scott Peterson’s lawyers asking for new DNA testing

    Peterson’s case caught national attention after his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, went missing on Christmas Eve 2002. Four months later, the bodies of Laci Peterson and their infant son, Connor, washed up to a Bay Area shore. Scott Peterson was convicted in 2004 for their murders and sentenced to death – which was later changed to life in prison.

    For over 20 years, Scott Peterson has maintained his innocence and in January 2024 his case was picked up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project, a group that defends inmates it believes to be wrongfully imprisoned. The group suggests that DNA evidence, suspicious activity in the area when Laci went missing, and the likelihood of another suspect, could exonerate the convicted killer.

    Scott Peterson was convicted in 2024 based on “overwhelming” circumstantial evidence and although he has been incarcerated for decades, innocence groups have been successful in getting hundreds of convictions overturned with the help of DNA testing.

    Scott Peterson is seen on a live video feed from Mule Creek State Prison on March 12, 2024.

    Here are some inmates who got out of jail after receiving support from groups like LAIP:

    Los Angeles Innocence Project

    After 38 years behind bars for a robbery-homicide and sexual assault in Inglewood, the Los Angeles Innocence Project reported that DNA evidence exonerated Maurice Hastings. Hastings was convicted in the 1980s and released in 2022 with the help of LAIP.

    In Hasting’s case, LAIP argued that DNA from the scene was never tested – similar to how the group said crucial evidence from Peterson’s case has not been examined.

    “I have been incarcerated for over fifteen years for a murder that I did not commit,” LAIP said Hastings wrote to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2000. “The most compelling of the evidence that has not as of yet been examined is the DNA evidence which will conclusively show that I was not the person involved with the deceased at the time of the crime.”

    After DNA testing was performed, the specimen led to a convicted sex offender and Hastings was subsequently released from prison after nearly four decades served.

    The Exoneration Project

    The Exoneration Project has helped close to 200 people prove their innocence and be freed from incarceration, according to its website. Some clients who were exonerated include Frank Drew, who spent 24 years in prison for homicide; Harold Staten who was incarcerated for 38 years for arson and murder; and Darien Harris who was reportedly convicted for a fatal shooting at a gas station after a blind eyewitness’ testimony. He was incarcerated for 12 years before the sentence was thrown out.

    Equal Justice Initiative

    The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, according to its website. It aims to challenge racial and economic injustice, and to protect basic human rights “for the most vulnerable people in American society.”

    One of the most notable cases is Marsha Colbey who was wrongfully convicted of capital murder in 2007 and sentenced to life after she reportedly gave birth to a stillborn baby.

    Colbey went into premature labor and unexpectedly delivered a stillborn baby while at home alone. Her efforts to revive the child were unsuccessful, and she buried him in a marked grave near her home, according to EJI. Initial forensic reports stated the baby was born alive which led to a murder charge, but four years later, new testing showed evidence of life was inconclusive. She was released from prison in 2012.

    Innocence Project

    The Innocence Project, not to be confused with the Los Angeles Innocence Project, has been successful in freeing nearly 300 inmates since its inception in 1992.

    Clients include Kirk Bloodsworth, who was reportedly the first person in the U.S. to be exonerated from death row. He was wrongfully convicted of the assault and murder of a 9-year-old girl in 1993 but released nine years later through DNA evidence.

    Steven Avery was also an Innocent Project client, who inspired the Netflix documentary series, “Making a Murder.” Avery was convicted in 1985 for sexual assault and attempted murder. He was exonerated in 2003 through DNA evidence – but only remained free for two years.

    After filing a $36M lawsuit and attempting to expose corruption in local law enforcement, he was charged with murder. Avery’s case has been controversial, and his legal team continues to advocate for his innocence.

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    Veronica Catlin

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  • After 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, 2 Georgia men set free after newly uncovered evidence exonerates them of murder charges | CNN

    After 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, 2 Georgia men set free after newly uncovered evidence exonerates them of murder charges | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After spending 25 years in prison on murder convictions related to the 1996 shooting death of their friend, two Georgia men were exonerated this week, after new evidence uncovered in a true-crime podcast last year proved their innocence, their lawyers said.

    Darrell Lee Clark and his co-defendant Cain Joshua Storey were 17 years old when they were arrested for their alleged involvement in the death of 15-year-old Brian Bowling.

    He died from a gunshot wound to the head in his family’s mobile home on October 18, 1996, according to Clark’s lawyers, Christina Cribbs and Meagan Hurley, with the nonprofit Georgia Innocence Project.

    Moments before the gun was fired, Bowling was on the phone with his girlfriend and told her he was playing a game of Russian roulette with a gun, which was brought to his home by Storey, who was in the room at the time of the shooting, according to a news release from the Georgia Innocence Project.

    Storey was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but months later, police began investigating the death as a homicide, and interviewed two witnesses whose statements led authorities to tie Clark to Bowling’s death, the Georgia Innocence Project said.

    “Despite the circumstances, which strongly indicated that Bowling accidentally shot himself in the head, at the urging of Bowling’s family members, police later began investigating the death as a homicide,” according to a motion filed by Clark’s attorneys, requesting a new trial.

    The two teenagers were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, following a weeklong trial in 1998.

    Clark’s exoneration came a year and a half after investigative podcasters Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis began scrutinizing his case in their Proof true-crime podcast in 2021, and interviewed two of the state’s key witnesses.

    Through their investigation, new evidence emerged which “shattered the state’s theory of Clark’s involvement” in Bowling’s death and the podcasters flagged his case to the Georgia Innocence Project, according to its news release.

    The first witness, a woman who lived near Bowling’s home was interviewed by police, who claimed she alleged the teens confessed they had “planned the murder of Bowling because he knew too much about a prior theft Storey and Clark had committed,” according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

    Based on her testimony, Storey was charged with murder and Clark was arrested as a co-conspirator despite having a corroborated alibi, stating he was home on the night of the shooting, which was supported by two witnesses, according to Clark’s motion for a new trial.

    But the woman revealed in the podcast, police coerced her into giving false statements and threatened to take her children away from her if she failed to comply, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

    Darrell Lee Clark was released from the Floyd County Jail on Thursday after the Rome Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office and Floyd County Superior Court Judge John Neidrach agreed that his conviction should be overturned.

    Police claimed the other witness, a man who was in a different room of the Bowlings’ home at the time of the shooting, identified Clark from a photo lineup as the person he saw running through the yard on the night Bowling was shot, the news release said.

    It was uncovered in the podcast the man’s testimony was based on an “unrelated, factually similar shooting” which he witnessed in 1976, and he never identified Clark as the individual in the yard, nor did he ever witness anyone in the yard on the night of the shooting, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.

    Davis told CNN in an interview when she and Simpson started their investigation, they weren’t expecting anything to come of it, but as they interviewed more people, it was “clear that it just wasn’t adding up.”

    “It took us a long time to talk to both of those witnesses. The podcast was happening in almost real time as an investigation. When we finally found and were able to talk to those two witnesses, it really solidified that both of these guys had been wrongly convicted,” Davis said.

    Clark’s attorneys filed pleadings in September to challenge a wrongful conviction and ask for a new trial, citing new information which proved his conviction was based on false evidence and coercion, Hurley told CNN.

    Clark, now 43, was released from the Floyd County Jail Thursday after the Rome Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office and Floyd County Superior Court Judge John Neidrach agreed the conviction should be overturned and all underlying charges against him dismissed, after evidence in the case was reexamined.

    Storey, who admitted to bringing the gun to Bowling’s home, was also released after accepting a plea deal for involuntary manslaughter, and a 10-year sentence with time served, after spending 25 years in prison. He was also exonerated of murder charges.

    Storey told CNN in an interview he was afraid to go to sleep the first night after he was released in case he would wake up and “realize it was all a dream.”

    “It’s been surreal to say the least,” he added. “I believe it’s going to be great. One step at a time. I never allowed my mind to get locked up all those years, anyhow.”

    “You never think something like that is going to happen to you,” said Lee Clark in a statement released by the Georgia Innocence Project. “Never would I have thought I would spend more than half my life in prison, especially for something I didn’t do.”

    Clark’s father, Glen Clark, told CNN in an interview, “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time. 25 years. My son was wrongly accused, and I knew it all these years. It’s hard for me to live with that.”

    “I watched my son go into prison as a kid, I watched him go through prison, I watched him come out as a man. He became a man in prison,” he added.

    Clark is living with his family in their home in Floyd County for the foreseeable future as he focuses on readjusting to life outside prison and rebuilding his life, he told CNN. Storey said he also moved back to Floyd County, with plans to go back to school and get a job.

    Clark said Judge Neidrach apologized on behalf of the state of Georgia and Floyd County this week during the court hearing this week, which was an important step toward healing.

    “That really touched my heart, because I had been living in corruption for so long, and it meant a lot to have someone acknowledge that wrong,” he told CNN.

    The Georgia Innocence Project will work to support Clark during his transition and connect him to resources, and a personal fundraiser has been organized on the MightyCause platform, open to the public for donations to Clark and his family, Hurley said.

    “It’s probably going to take some time to like truly process that he is free and doesn’t have to go back behind prison walls, because he spent most of his life behind them,” Hurley said.

    After his release, Clark is living with his family in their home in Floyd County for the foreseeable future as he focuses on readjusting to life outside prison and rebuilding his life.

    “More than anything, he’s looking forward to getting to spend time with his family and rebuilding some of those relationships that he was, frankly, ripped away from at the age of 17,” she added.

    The exonerations of both men were the culmination of a collaboration between Clark, Storey and his defense team, as well as the Bowling family, which was willing to take an “objective look at this case and reevaluate some of the things they have been told in the past,” Hurley said.

    Davis was in the courtroom during Clark and Storey’s hearing this week and said she’s still “in shock” and feels a huge amount of relief for both men.

    “In the end, I also feel for Brian Bowling’s family who have been incredibly gracious and supportive as well. It’s really rare when you have the victim’s family support the convictions being overturned,” Davis said.

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