Ohio Man Cleared After 39 Years Behind Bars

Ricky Jackson was initially sentenced to death over the murder

Ricky Jackson will walk free on Friday after becoming the longest-held US prisoner to be cleared of all charges.

An Ohio prisoner who has spent almost four decades in jail will be released after a witness confessed to lying.

Ricky Jackson will walk free on Friday, 39 years after his imprisonment for murder.

The ruling makes him the longest-held US prisoner to be exonerated, a lawyer for the Ohio Innocence Project said.

Mr Jackson, 57, was jailed alongside two other men over the 1975 murder of Cleveland area money-order collector Harold Franks.

He was convicted on the testimony of 12-year-old Eddie Vernon, who claimed to have witnessed the attack.

This week, Mr Vernon, now 53, admitted he had falsified his story after confessing to a pastor that he was in fact on a school bus at the time of the killing, something several witnesses have confirmed.

He told a judge his story had been based on information from a friend and police who fed him details.

There was no other evidence linking Mr Jackson to the murder.

Cleveland police have since linked another man to a revolver and a green convertible that was seen at the scene of the crime. Court records show the man was arrested three years later for aggravated murder in connection with a spree of robberies.

Mr Jackson was said to have sobbed loudly as Cuyahoga County Judge Richard McMonagle dropped all charges.

"The state is conceding the obvious," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty.

Mr Jackson's co-accused, brothers Ronnie and Wiley Bridgeman, have now filed for a retrial.

Their petitions have not yet been resolved.

Wiley remains in prison, while Ronnie was released in 2003.

Both had been on death row until Ohio temporarily abolished the death penalty in 1978.

"One of them came within 20 days of execution before Ohio ruled the death penalty unconstitutional," said lawyer Mark Godsey.

Mr Jackson had also initially been sentenced to death, but had the sentence lifted after a paperwork error.


Sky News