A man that maintained his innocence for 45 years has been acquitted of his wife’s murder after decades in prison.
The man, who is now 83, has been released from jail after spending around 45 years in jail.
Isiah Andrews continued to claim his innocence even after the prosecutor offered a plea deal from prosecutors.
Andrews was convicted in 1974 of killing Regina, his wife.
Regina was found in Forest Park, Cleveland, after being stabbed 11 times in the Colonia House Hotel.
In 2020, Andrews was granted a new trial and was released on bail after a judge ruled that prosecutors in the original trial failed to inform the jury that police had interviewed another suspect in the killing in 1975.
The other suspect had an alibi for the timeline of Regina’s murder, and the interview was never reviewd.
The suspect passed away in 2011.
Marcus Sidoti, the defense attorney, told the jurors that they let the murderer go away.
On October 19, 2021, the trial of Andrew began in front of Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty.
There was no physical evidence that linked Andrews to the crime.
The jury found him not guilty after deliberating for 90 minutes.
Andrews was represented by the Ohio Innocence Project.
Attorney Brian Howe told CBS News:
At close to 46 years, Isaiah’s time served stands as the second-longest known wrongful incarceration in US history. This was the right result today, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get actual justice. He should have never been convicted in the first place and he certainly never should have been retried.
Andrew, who has cancer and uses a wheelchair, said he feels to be relieved that he has been acquitted of the crime that he never committed.
