Man cleared after 45 years in prison ‘not bitter’

A US man whose murder conviction was thrown out after spending 45 years in prison has been exonerated and will not face a second trial.

Richard Phillips, 71, from the Detroit area, was upbeat, saying the criminal justice system “works — it just didn’t work fast enough”.

A judge granted a request to permanently drop the case against Phillips, whose conviction was erased last year.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting.

“There’s nothing I can say to bring back 40 years of his life,” Ms Worthy said. “The system failed him. This is a true exoneration.”

The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the 1972 trial told the state parole board that Phillips was not involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris.

Phillips had been free on bond since December. He is likely to be eligible for more than 2 million US dollars under Michigan’s wrongful conviction law.

“I’ve never carried bitterness around, so I’m not a bitter man,” Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison.

One of his goals is a reunion with two children who were aged two and four when he went to prison in 1972.

Despite publicity about his case, Phillips said he has not heard from them and does not know their whereabouts.

“You have seen the worst and best of the criminal justice system,” Judge Kevin Cox told Phillips.

Phillips has settled in a Detroit suburb and attends a church where he shares his story with others.

“His freedom truly belongs to him again,” Mr Moran said.