Saw full family die off: Wrongfully convicted man freed after 32 years

A man in the US, named Gilbert Lee Poole Jr, was wrongfully convicted for murder and was freed after spending 32 years in prison on Wednesday. He was convicted in 1989, and upon further investigations with the assistance of DNA technology, his sentence was vacated, Fox 2 reports

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Poole was initially suspected of stabbing Robert Meija to death on June 7, 1988. Sketches based on witnesses’ description to the police of the person Meija was with before he was last seen, which was in a bar, were published in a newspaper, yet no leads to the case emerged, Fox 2 reports.

In 1988, Poole’s then-girlfriend said that he committed the murder. An expert also found that a bite mark that was on Meija matched Poole’s bite. But the bite mark analysis is now discredited, and forensic technology is much more advanced today. “Just walking out the front door is not the end of this process, this continues. Now I’ve got to figure out how to navigate a world I haven’t seen in 33 years”, said Poole, reports Foz 2.

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After further forensic studies were conducted on the incident, DNA testing suggested that the DNA in the evidence did not match either Meija’s, or Poole’s. After walking out of prison,  Poole spoke about the things he missed seeing during his 32 years in prison. “I have never seen a cell phone in my life until today. I still haven’t touched one”, said Poole.  “

“I watched them all die off in prison. My mother, my father, my brother, my grandmother, all passed away since I’ve been in prison,” he said.