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A man who spent nearly 26 years on death row in a Louisiana prison walked free Tuesday after a judge approved the state’s motion to vacate his murder conviction.

Glenn Ford, 64, was convicted of murdering 56-year-old Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler and watchmaker in 1983. 

From Associated Press:

Ford told the broadcast outlet he does harbor some resentment at being wrongly jailed: “Yeah, cause, I’ve been locked up almot 30 years for something I didn’t do.”

“I can’t go back and do anything I should have been doing when I was 35, 38, 40 stuff like that,” he added.

State District Judge Ramona Emanuel on Monday took the step of voiding Ford’s conviction and sentence based on new information that corroborated his claim that he was not present or involved in Rozeman’s death, Ford’s attorneys said. Ford was tried and convicted of first-degree murder in 1984 and sentenced to death.

Read more at Associated Press

Attorney’s for Ford said his trial had been “profoundly compromised by inexperienced counsel and by the unconstitutional suppression of evidence, including information from an informant.”

They also cited what they referred to as a suppressed police report related to the time of the crime and evidence involving the murder weapon. Currently, 83 men and two women are serving death sentences in Louisiana.

The state’s law entitles those exonerated to receive compensation in payments of $25,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration served up to a maximum of $250,000, plus up to $80,000 for loss of “life opportunities.”

Hopefully Mr. Ford can make the best of his next phase of life.

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