A man who spent 28 years behind bars was released from prison Friday after a Pennsylvania judge vacated his 1996 conviction in the murder of a 4-year-old girl.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner welcomed the judge's order, saying in a statement Friday,"On behalf of this office, I apologize to Walter Ogrod and his family. I hope he will soon be officially declared innocent of this horrendous crime."
Judge Shelley Robins New ordered a new trial, and prosecutors have filed a motion to quell a retrial. If that motion is granted, Ogrod's case will be closed. For now he's out on bail. Prosecutors now believe that Ogrod was coerced into a false confession after 4-year-old Barbara Jean Horn wasWitnesses said they saw a man near the box, but he didn't look like Ogrod. Jurors in his first trial voted 11-1 to acquit, but a second trial included the testimony of jailhouse informants, and Ogrod was convicted.In an interview with NBC News' Lester Holt in May, Ogrod saidand recovered while serving time in Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institution Phoenix.
"It’s remarkable that this occurred today, during a time when our country is experiencing so much unrest and so many and whether or not it is so demonstrably broke that you can’t get just results," Assistant District Attorney Patricia Cummings said Friday."To know that an innocent man has been in prison and the person that did this has been out, it's just horrible," said the girl's mother, Sharon Fahy.
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