Innocent Philadelphia Man Freed After Spending 24 Years In Prison

Screengrab via ABC News

A Philadelphia man who spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit has finally been released.

Shaurn Thomas was arrested at the age of 19 for the murder of a Puerto Rican businessman back in November 1990, and although he tried to prove his innocence by stating he was at a youth correctional facility during the time the murder occurred (his mother and sister were with him at the facility as well), he was still sent to prison.

Now, following a judge's decision to throw out Thomas' conviction after the district attorney's office and Thomas' lawyers agreed that the evidence against him was unsubstantial, Thomas has been freed from prison.

"It feels amazing. It's one of the best feelings I ever had to see Shaurn Thomas walk out of prison. A lot of hard work went into it. We, at times, thought this would never happen, but it finally happened today," Jim Figorski of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project said in an interview with 6ABC.

"I feel wonderful, a free man. I can't feel no better," Thomas said. "Hey man, just got to believe in God, and had the right legal team, and keep fighting."

"I don't got no animosity towards nobody. What for? Life's too short for that," Thomas added. "You can't get it back. I just move on forward. It's a tragedy that happened to me, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one."

The Philadelphia District attorney's office will decide whether they expect to retry Thomas at a hearing next month.

Source via 6ABC