Innocent man John Miller freed after 22 years behind bars

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/innocent-man-john-miller-freed-after-22-years-behind-bars/news-story/9fccde97b28a077ceaa77ecd176b79e0

New York Post, Associated Press, staff writers
news.com.au
August 2, 20194:29pm

A man who spent more than two decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit is a free man — 17 years after another man confessed to the crime.

John Miller was released on Wednesday after 22 years in prison in the US. Surrounded by family outside the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy, 160 kilometres north of Philadelphia, he said it felt “surreal”.

In 1998, a jury found Mr Miller guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a man in a carpark two years prior, even though there was no physical evidence of his involvement.

The key witness against him confessed multiple times to being the real shooter and even sent a letter to Mr Miller’s mother apologising for lying.

•••••

The witness, David Williams, recanted his statement at Mr Miller’s preliminary hearing in 1997 and denied it again at trial a year later, but the jury voted to convict Mr Miller anyway.

•••••