Exoneración de prisión: scientist reanalysis frees man after 18 years

A Hennepin County judge has vacated the 38-year-old murder conviction of Jerrell Michael Brown, who spent nearly two decades behind bars for a crime prosecutors now say he did not commit.

Advancements in forensic technology led to the stunning reversal.

Brown was convicted of first-degree murder in the August 2008 shooting death of Darius Ormond Miller in Minneapolis. Prosecutors acknowledged that their case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and incentivized witnesses, including jailhouse informants whose testimony benefited their own cases.

Thanks to breakthroughs in 3D microscopy and ballistics analysis, forensic experts were able to reexamine evidence from the shooting, concluding that the bullet that killed Miller could not have come from Brown's gun. New blood spatter analysis also supported this finding.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that although Brown had been present when the shooting occurred, he was not the killer, and no further charges were warranted.

The conviction was the second in recent years that the attorney's office has recommended overturning, both of which had been featured on the A&E reality show