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A Philadelphia man was exonerated after serving 24 years of a life sentence for a murder he did not commit, CBS News reports.

Shaurn Thomas walked out of prison on Tuesday after a court threw out his 1993 conviction. A single witness, who later recanted, testified that Thomas, 16 years old at the time, was involved in the slaying of a businessman.

Thomas, who always maintained his innocence, received legal assistance toward his exoneration from the Innocence Project.

“This is a man who has not only been proclaiming his innocence, but has been doing everything he can to prove it,” Marissa Bluestine, who is executive director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, told CBS News Philadelphia. “This is one of those cases that should not have gone to trial, but unfortunately it did.”

Now 43 years old, Thomas said he always believed he would be cleared, and like many other exonerated prisoners, he does not hold a grudge.

SOURCE:  CBS News

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Wrongfully Convicted Philadelphia Man Exonerated After 24 Years  was originally published on newsone.com