Eric Riddick, released after serving 29 years for crime he says he didn't commit, turns focus to helping others.
Eric Riddick, who served 29 years for crime he didn't commit, fights to clear nameMatt Rourke/AP
"I want to build a youth center where we house and help rebuild young Black men," Mill told ABC News."Our youth jails, our youth programs, they are not effective. And they don't know how to actually cater to our younger brothers and sisters coming up in our environments." Dana Riddick, Eric's wife of eight years, who met and eventually married the 51-year-old Black man while he was incarcerated, would soon join his family's fight. She hugged her husband Friday for the first time as a free man.
"For all these years to go by and not being able to rectify my unlawful conviction, my freedom was not in season at that time," Riddick continued."How do I make sense of things right now? I say, justice is in season. So [Friday] was a testimony to that."In the summer of 1992, Riddick was 22 years old when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the November 1991 shooting death of his friend, William Catlett.
MORE: Rapper Meek Mill scores legal win as Philadelphia district attorney calls for a new judge and new trial During the trial, Riddick's alibi witnesses were not called to testify and the prosecutor withheld exculpatory ballistic evidence, according to Emeka Igwe, Riddick's lead attorney.