California: US acquitted after 39 years in prison

The DNA test showed an American acquittal of a double homicide for her mother and child to spend his first Thanksgiving holiday, enjoying his freedom after 39 years in prison.

Craig Cooley was convicted of a crime in the Simi Valley area of ​​California in 1978.

California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned the 70-year-old man on Wednesday and prison officials quickly released him, prosecutors and police in the Simi Valley area said. Local authorities supported the ruling.

"The way in which Mr. Cooley bore his long and unfair punishment with patience and tolerance is amazing," Brown wrote in the document in which he ordered Colley's release. "I am giving him this amnesty because Mr. Cooley did not commit these crimes."

He was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend Ronda Wicht and her four-year-old son Donald in the apartment where the mother and child lived in 1978.

Brown wrote in the amnesty letter that Collie, who has no criminal record, may have been charged.

"The case is tragic"

Colley was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to life imprisonment without access to parole.

Cooley has always insisted on his innocence. The governor said he had turned into a prison and turned away from gangs. After asking for an amnesty from Brown, the governor ordered a review of his case.

Simi Valley police said biological samples believed to have been lost or destroyed were discovered in a private laboratory and investigators analyzed important evidence.

The analysis showed that there was no effect of collie DNA in the sample, but there were traces of DNA to other people. Police said the technique used to analyze the sample was not available when Colley was convicted.

"With the review of the case in the light of the new evidence, we no longer trust the strength of the evidence used to convict Mr. Cooley," Simi Valley police and prosecutors from Ventura County said in a joint statement.

They described the case as tragic and vowed to continue the investigation to determine the possibility of finding the murderer who murdered the woman and child 39 years ago.