Man wrongly convicted 4 decades ago freed from prison

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10 years ago

Joseph Sledge, center, talks with his sister Barbara and brother Oscar during a break as a three-judge panel takes up his claim of innocence in Whiteville, N.C., on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Ethan Hyman)

Slayings Reviewed — Joseph Sledge, center, talks with his sister Barbara and brother Oscar during a break as a three-judge panel takes up his claim of innocence in Whiteville, N.C., on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Ethan Hyman)

WHITEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A 70-year-old man has been freed from prison after a panel of judges found that he was wrongly convicted in the stabbing deaths of a mother and daughter nearly four decades ago.
Joseph Sledge said Friday he was looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and maybe swimming in a pool.
Sledge was sentenced to life in prison in the September 1976 slayings of Josephine Davis and her daughter, Aileen. They were found stabbed to death in their home in Elizabethtown, a day after Sledge had escaped from a prison work farm where he was serving time for larceny.
The judges heard from a DNA expert who said none of the evidence collected in the case matched Sledge. A key jailhouse informant also recanted his testimony.
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