PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia man who has maintained his innocence in a murder case for nearly three decades has been ordered free from prison after a judge overturned his conviction.
Willie Veasy’s long-running appeal came to an end Wednesday morning, when a judge tossed out the murder conviction.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the judge told the 54-year-old Veasy “You’re a free man,” as a crowd in courtroom erupted in applause. He’d spent 27 years in prison.
Veasy’s case is one of two that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office was reviewing due to ties to two former detectives accused of using threats, false promises or abuse to coerce suspects into confessing to murders they didn’t commit.
Veasy insisted for decades that he didn’t kill John Lewis on a Philadelphia street corner in 1992.
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