After rotting in prison for 15 years for a murder he didn't commit, a Tennessee man has been exonerated.
A Davidson County judge ordered Joseph Webster's release after receiving a recommendation from the district attorney's office that said it "no longer has confidence in the conviction."
The 41-year-old walked out of a Nashville detention center Thursday after a four-year legal battle.
Webster was convicted in the 1998 murder of Leroy Owens despite an admission of guilt by one of Webster's relatives, court documents reveal.
"After a decade and a half in prison for a murder that he did not commit, I am overjoyed that Joseph Webster's wrongful conviction will finally be overturned," says his lawyer, Daniel Horwitz.
"Mr. Webster is also thinking of the entire Owens family at this time, which has to process the painful news of learning that the wrong person was convicted of committing this brutal murder."
Is there any way the state can compensate Webster for the 15 years he missed?