A Florida man who was freed from prison after serving decades for a murder he says he didn’t commit has been ordered back to jail, CNN reports.
Crosley Green was initially sentenced to death by an all-White jury in the 1989 shooting death of Charles Flynn. Green was resentenced to life in 2009 due to a technicality in the sentencing phase of his trial.
In 2018, US District Judge Roy Dalton determined that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence of police suspecting someone else was the shooter. Green’s conviction was overturned and he was allowed to leave prison on conditional release in 2021.
Since his release, Green has held a steady job, attended church, and been “a model citizen,” according to his attorney, Jeane Thomas.
However, the state of Florida appealed the decision to overturn his conviction and won last year. Green’s conviction was reinstated in 2022.
Dalton ruled earlier this month that Green must turn himself in by April 17 to continue serving his life sentence. The judge allowed Green to remain free while he exhausted all of his legal options.
After the Supreme Court declined to hear Green’s case in February, his only options to stay out of prison are clemency or parole.
“We are in strategy mode right now, with respect to parole and clemency,” Thomas told CNN. “There is a commission within the state of Florida that considers both options. In the case of parole, they make a decision. In the case of clemency, they make a recommendation to the governor.”
In a statement to CNN, Greene said he’s still optimistic that he will prove his innocence.
“To me, it’s just another part of what I’m going through now to get my freedom. That’s all it is.”
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