Man Wrongly Convicted Of Murder, To Be Freed After Serving 39 Years

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A man who has spent nearly forty years in prison after being convicted of murder is expected to be freed on Friday after a witness confessed that he lied as a boy when he told jurors that he saw the deadly attack. Huff’ Post reports:

Ricky Jackson had been seeking a new trial and sobbed loudly with his face in his hands as prosecutors dismissed his case Tuesday, The Plain Dealer reported.

“I can’t believe this is over,” Jackson, 57, said, thanking his supporters and his attorneys from the Ohio Innocence Project.

Jackson has been imprisoned for 39 years, serving a life sentence for aggravated murder and other charges, according to state prison records. He is expected to be released as soon as the paperwork is finished.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said the case fell apart after witness Eddie Vernon recanted. Vernon said he had been fed details of the crime by police and kept quiet about his lies because investigators had threatened to imprison his parents.

Vernon was 12 when he accused Jackson and two brothers in the May 1975 killing of a money-order collector who authorities said was beaten, shot and attacked with acid as he walked near a grocery store. No evidence connected the defendants to the crime, but all three were convicted by juries.

This week, Vernon told a judge he was trying to please others when he provided a false story based on information from a friend and police who fed him details, creating a web of lies that helped convict Jackson and the other men. He said he gave authorities the names of the three men because he thought he was doing the right thing.