Missouri Man Wrongly Convicted For Murder Freed After 28 Years In Prison

A Missouri man wrongly convicted of murder has finally walked free after serving nearly 28 years in prison after a judge declared him innocent.

Lamar Johnson, who said that he has always denied the charges, was declared innocent after two witnesses provided "clear and convincing evidence," according to a report by the Associated Press.

"This is unbelievable," Johnson said as he stepped out of the courtroom.

St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason issued the ruling months after Attorney Kim Gardner filed a motion seeking Johnson's release after an investigation concluded that Johnson was innocent of the October 1994 killing of Marcus Boyd.

Boyd was shot to death on Johnson's front porch by two masked men, according to AP. Police and prosecutors blamed the killing on a dispute over drug money. Judge Mason issued his ruling after one witness – James Howard – retracted his testimony, and an inmate had confessed that he shot Boyd with another suspect, Phil Campbell, the BBC reported.

Howard is currently serving life for murder and several other crimes committed three years after Boyd got killed.

Lawyer Gardner applauded the judge's ruling.

"Mr. Lamar Johnson. Thank you. You're free," she said, as quoted by AP. "This is Valentine's Day, and this is historical."

Meanwhile, the state attorney general's office, which fought to keep Johnson in jail, said in an email that they would take no further action in the case.

"As he stated when he was sworn in, Attorney General (Andrew) Bailey is committed to enforcing the laws as written," Spokesperson Madeline Sieren stated. "Our office defended the rule of law and worked to uphold the original verdict that a jury of Johnson's peers deemed to be appropriate based on the facts presented at trial."

Slamming the office's stance, Johnson's attorneys said that the Republican-led office would rather see Johnson "languish and die in prison."

"When this State's highest law enforcement office could hide from a courtroom no more, it presented nothing to challenge the overwhelming body of evidence that the circuit attorney and Lamar Johnson had amassed," they said in a statement.

"While today brings joy, nothing can restore all that the state stole from him. Nothing will give him back the nearly three decades he lost while separated from his daughters and family."