Ex-officer helps exonerate US prisoner after 24 years

24 May 2017 US & Canada

A Philadelphia man has been exonerated and freed from prison 24 years after he was found guilty of a murder he did not commit.

Shaurn Thomas, 43, was released after the Philadelphia District Attorney's office agreed that the evidence did not support the conviction.

Mr Thomas, who was 19 when found guilty, maintained all along he was at another court hearing during the crime.

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Mr Thomas had said he was at a correctional centre for youth offenders in connection with an unrelated case at the time of the murder.

But the sign-in logs that would have proved his alibi went missing, and jurors did not believe his mother and sister, who said they were with him.

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