From The Daily Texan:
A 76-year-old prisoner walked out of jail, a free man for the first time in 41 years, after a judge dismissed the conviction against him.
Robert Carroll Coney, convicted of a 1962 robbery, exhibited a surprising lack of bitterness as he left Angelina County Jail with his wife on Tuesday.
“I’m going to try to pick up the pieces,” Coney told the Lufkin Daily News in Wednesday’s editions. “If I was angry, what could I do about it?”
Coney said his identity had been confused with a man he had carpooled with through Lufkin on the day of the crime: March 7, 1962. Court documents state Coney falsely confessed to the crime after Angelina County deputies broke his hand, the Daily News reported.
Not only was his confession inadmissible, but 41 years for a robbery? (Though, apparently he escaped from time-to-time and no doubt prolonged his jail time.)
Link via Talk Left.