A resident of the American state of Tennessee served 15 years in prison on charges of murder he did not commit, reports Unilad.
In 1998, two men in a white station wagon caught up with Leroy Owens and beat him to death with a cinder block. Eyewitnesses indicated that two African Americans were responsible for the crime, and selected a photo of Joseph Webster from a selection of photographs as one of the suspects.
In 2006, the court found Webster guilty of murder, based on the testimony of witnesses. The defendant, who is now 41, pleaded not guilty, but was sentenced to life in prison. At the time of the trial, Webster was already in jail for a less serious crime. As a result, he spent about 20 years behind bars, 15 of which were charged with the murder of Owens.
The convict’s lawyer, Daniel Horwitz, organized his own investigation and applied for a review of the Webster case. One of the witnesses changed his testimony, and no DNA of the convict was found on the murder weapon. The district attorney’s office advised the judge to drop the charge.
On Tuesday, November 10, Webster was released from prison. After his release, the former inmate went straight to his mother’s house to eat homemade food for the first time in 10 years. He loves his family and missed them every day in captivity. One of Webster’s children, Joquan, has never seen his father free.
Previously it was reported that a resident of the American city of Detroit, Michigan, 26 years spent in prison on murder charges and was rehabilitated after a DNA test. After his release from prison, Hamilton was greeted outside the golf course by law school students who helped arrange a review of his case.