After spending 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, a Brooklyn man was released and is now free. It’s all thanks to a surveillance video from 2008, which attorneys for Arvel Marshall say wasn’t handed over before. Part of it proves the 52-year-old didn’t fatally shoot a man in Brooklyn.
On Friday, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office moved to vacate Marshall’s conviction in front of a Supreme Court judge. Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez called the wrongful conviction a “tragic case,” but his Conviction Review Unit re-investigated it, got the video into evidence and found Marshall is innocent. Gonzalez said, "The system has failed our society again, and this case is one of systemic failures.”
Once he was a free man, Marshall reunited with his family for a feast of food he’s been craving for 16 years. He says he’s feeling good and he’s happy that his freedom isn’t just a dream anymore. “This is heaven right here on Earth right now,” he explains. "You don't want to close your eyes, because you don't want it to be a dream. So it's like, right now, I'm nervous. I am sleepy, but I don't want to close my eyes. I don't want to wake up and I'm back in a cell.”
Source: CBS News