California Man Freed After Seven Years

A California judge ordered Ronald Ross’ release from prison on Friday after he spent nearly seven years behind bars for an attempted murder he did not commit. The

San Francisco Chronicle

reports:

“I can feel sunshine and breathe clean air again,” said Ross, who hugged his private investigator, Keith McArthur, before facing a bank of television cameras. “Today is a lovely day. It’s past a good day. It’s a blessed day.”

Ronald Ross was convicted for an April 15, 2006, Oakland shooting incident based largely on the victim’s identification in a photo lineup and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Ross’ trial attorney brought the case to the

Northern California Innocence Project

for further investigation, which revealed that Oakland police had not followed through on a strong lead to a different suspect. The man now suspected in the shooting has since been arrested for an Oakland crime spree in July 2011.

 

A second review of the case conducted by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office concluded that Ross’s conviction should be thrown out in light of new evidence of his innocence. If the conviction had not been vacated, Ross could have spent the rest of his life behind bars.

 

Read

news coverage

and

watch a CBS video

of Ross after he was released.