Earlier this year, Chattooga County Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Graham granted a new trial to a Georgia man who has spent the last twenty-three years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Evidence presented pointed to someone committing the crime.

Inman, who has always professed his innocence, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1998 murder of Donna Brown, a Taco Bell night manager in Adel. She was killed in the restaurant’s parking lot and robbed of about $1,700 of the day’s receipts.

But last month a North Georgia judge hearing Inman’s appeal threw out his conviction and ordered a new trial. The judge found that evidence withheld by prosecutors strongly supported Inman’s claims of innocence.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, last week, the state Attorney General’s Office declined to appeal that order. And on Monday, Cook County Superior Court Chief Judge Clayton Tomlinson signed an order dismissing the case and ordering Inman released from custody “as soon as possible.” That happened hours later.

AJC