Court declares man innocentafter 39 years in JailSteve Dede | 21:54 | 25.01.2015

A 70-year-old man in North Carolina, United
States of America, Joseph Sledge has been
released from jail after he was wrongly convicted of
a murder in 1976.
Joseph Sledge was convicted of two counts of
second-degree murder and sentenced to life in
prison for the murder of 74-year-old
Josephine Davis and her 57-year-old
daughter, Aileen .
After serving nearly four decades in jail, Joseph
Sledge was on Friday, January 23 found innocent
by a three-judge panel in Whileville, North
Carolina.
The three-judge panel was set by the Supreme
Court after North Carolina Innocence Inquiry
Commission found there was enough doubt to
review Sledge's case.
A key jailhouse informant, Herman Baker,
signed an affidavit in 2013 recanting trial
testimony. Baker said he lied at the 1978 trial
after being promised leniency in his own drug case
and he said he'd been coached by authorities on
what to say.
A district attorney who was not originally involved
apologized to Sledge and promised to reopen the
investigation.

“The system has made a mistake,” district
attorney Jon David said.
When he was asked by reporters outside the
courthouse on what he was looking forward to
doing now that is free, Joseph Sledge said;
“Going home. Relaxing. Sleeping in a
real bed. Probably get in a pool of water
and swim .”