70 Years Old Man Freed after Jailed for 40 Years for Crime He did Not Commit

How much compensation would atone for a life "wasted" for been wrongly accused for crime he never committed and jailed? Only job is that he was exonerated.

Joseph Sledge was set free Friday after a three-judge panel found that he was innocent of a 1976 killing of a mother 74 and a daughter 57.  DNA evidence helped his freedom after spending decades in prison for a wrongful murder conviction. The 70-year-old is the third inmate to be freed in less than six months in the state.

After he was released, Sledge said he was really looking forward to going home and doing the "most mundane" things: "Going home, relaxing and sleeping in a real bed."

The lawyer who took his case in 2004, Christine Mumma, said she had been on the verge of closing the case in 2012 when court clerks discovered a misplaced envelope containing hair from the crime scene while cleaning out an evidence vault.

The envelope contained hair, found on the victim and believed to be the attacker's, that turned out to be a key piece of evidence needed to do DNA testing, which wasn't available when Sledge went on trial in 1978. Thanks to technology.

Read full story here North Carolina man wrongly convicted decades ago freed from prison


Credit:Foxnews