U.S. man released from death row

(Vatican Radio) An American man, who spent nearly three decades on death row, was set free on Tuesday after being exonerated on new evidence. Glenn Ford walked out of a Louisiana State Penitentiary late Tuesday, 29 years after being convicted of armed robbery and first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

A judge exonerated Ford of all charges and ordered him released, based on new evidence that came to light last year.

Ford, now 64, told reporters “it feels good” to be released but he bears resentment for his imprisonment, which kept him from raising his family.

“I was locked up almost 30 years, I can’t go back and do anything that I should have been doing when I was 35, 38, 40, stuff like that. My son, when I left, was a baby and now he’s a grown man with (a) baby,” he said.

A jury had convicted Ford for the 1983 murder of Isadore Rozeman. The 56-year-old watchmaker, for whom Ford had done occasional yard work, was found shot to death in his jewelry shop.

Ford always maintained his innocence and had filed several appeals, most of which were denied.

But in 2000, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered a hearing based on Ford's claim that the prosecution had suppressed favorable evidence related to two suspects initially implicated in the crime.

Last Thursday, prosecutors filed a motion, stating that “credible evidence” emerged in late 2013 “supporting a finding that Ford was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman.”

Court records show that an unidentified informant in 2013 told prosecutors that Jake Robinson, one of the original suspects, had admitted to shooting and killing the victim.

Listen to the report by Laura Ieraci: