A US citizen who was wrongly imprisoned for 28 years in Missouri after being accused of murder, despite repeated denials, has been released.
On Tuesday, a judge David Mason in the court of St. Louis, decided to acquit the man named Lamar Johnson, 50 years old.
The judge said that he made the decision after two other witnesses presented convincing evidence to him and showed that Mr. Johnson was innocent.
He was sentenced after being accused of murdering Marcus Boyd in 1994.
Mr. Johnson’s supporters cheered and cheered when the court announced his acquittal.
“This is a pleasure,” said Mr. Johnson, after leaving the court.
Last year, a grand jury, Kim Gardner, filed a lawsuit demanding Mr. Johnson’s release after a federal investigation found Mr. Johnson innocent.
After Tuesday’s verdict, Mr. Johnson’s lawyers criticized the state attorney general’s office for demanding that he be kept behind bars.
“The office has not stopped saying that Lamar is innocent, and they don’t even care if he dies in prison,” Mr Johnson’s lawyers said in a statement.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said in a statement that it will not take any further action on the matter.
“Our office defends the law and works to ensure that the original decision made by the committee of lawyers is implemented, after working with the evidence presented,” the statement said.
Marcus Boyd was shot in front of Mr Johnson’s home in October 1994 by two masked men.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly said he was not at home when Marcus Boyd was attacked and killed.
Judge Mason made the decision after a witness criticized his testimony, where an inmate told the truth that he and a man named Phil Campbell shot Boyd.
Earlier in the hearing, Campbell pleaded guilty, but pleaded for leniency, where he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
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