Erin Walsh’s dying wish was granted  when he was acquitted him of the second-degree murder of Melvin Peters, more than three decades after his conviction of the crime.

Walsh, who is in the final stages of terminal colon cancer, tearfully hugged his emotionally overwrought wife, Angela, and then struggled to rise from his wheelchair and address the court. “On behalf of my family and myself, it is just a tremendous relief for me and I just want to thank you for your fairness, your astuteness, in coming to this decision.”

“I’m a free man,” an ecstatic and emotional Walsh said outside the courtroom. “I mean, freedom now means something to me. It is not just a word. It is something that I’m going to wear every day of my life like I wore my captivity.”

That captivity began on Friday, October 17, I975, when a jury convicted Walsh of second-degree murder. It took jurors an hour to reach the verdict, during which time they also stopped to eat lunch. To them it was an open and shut case. It wasn’t quite so simple for Walsh. (Click here to read the rest of the story)