PHILADELPHIA - An elderly Philadelphia man who spent most of the past four decades behind bars is free.
Eighty-two-year-old Louis Mickens-Thomas was imprisoned for the 1964 murder of a Philadelphia girl. Legal advocates believe he's innocent, the victim of a rogue forensics expert.
Those doubts led former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey to commute his life sentence in 1995, though he wasn't released for nine more years.
He returned to prison in 2005 over a mandatory sex offender program offense. His lawyers say he simply kissed a woman at church.
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Mickens-Thomas could be released from prison, and he left Tuesday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports his lawyers and supporters took him to a steak shop for the four eggs over-easy and home fries he'd been dreaming of.
Associated press
