WILMINGTON, Del. — A man who spent about half of his life behind bars for a murder he said he didn’t commit has been released from a Delaware prison after prosecutors decided to essentially dismiss his case.
The News Journal of Wilmington reports that 32-year-old Mark Purnell walked out of a correctional center late Thursday, just after a local prosecutor filed a memo ending a bid to retry him for the 2006 killing of Tamika Giles in a Wilmington neighborhood.
The Delaware Supreme Court overturned his conviction last year. Prosecutors said they still believe there was evidence to convict him but suggested success wasn’t likely.
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