Wrongfully Convicted Man Released From Prison After Serving 32 Years
Andrew Leander Wilson walked out of prison after giving 32 years of his life to a justice system that failed him. However, he wasn’t angry and smiled as he spoke on the relief of being released.
“I say it all the time, don’t stop fighting. Don’t give up,” Wilson said, according to News One. “It seems like that’s what the justice system wants you to do, and I never gave up.”
Wilson was released after the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent worked on his case and found that a lot of pertinent information was withheld from the proceedings, meaning he didn’t receive a fair trial.
Andrew Wilson is a free man after 32 years. Bitterness is a wasted path, said Wilson. I'm a free man. #LPI pic.twitter.com/bp0M4SLS9q
— Loyola Law School (@LoyolaLawSchool) March 16, 2017
The 62-year-old was convicted of the stabbing murder of Christopher Hanson, 21, while he was in a truck with his girlfriend Saladena Bishop in 1984. Bishop, who had already filed a false police report in the past, only identified Wilson in a lineup after an officer pointed to his picture. Ever since his arrest, Wilson has maintained his innocence.
“It’s been a nightmare but I survived and got to the end of the road,” he told reporters as he walked out with his daughter and sister.
After more than three decades, Wilson plans to go to St. Louis to visit his 96-year-old mother who’s always supported him.
“My mother was the backbone,” Wilson said. “She was a 96-year-old pit bull.”