Michael Hanline was convicted to life without parole for a 1978 Ventura County murder. On Monday, the 69-year-old was released after new DNA evidence didn’t match his. ‘It feels like I’m on the front of a missile going through space and stuff is just flying by. I mean it’s just incredible,’ he told reporters.
NY Daily News
After spending more than half of his life behind bars, California’s longest-serving wrongfully convicted inmate is heading home.
Michael Hanline was released Monday from the Ventura County jail, where he served 36 years in prison for a 1978 murder.
“It feels like I’m on the front of a missile going through space and stuff is just flying by. I mean it’s just incredible,” he told reporters outside of the jail.
The white-haired 69-year-old walked away with the help of a cane and left the facility hand-in-hand with his wife, Sandee.
Hanline was convicted to life in prison without parole in 1980, the L.A. Times reported. Prosecutors said he shot and killed J.T. McGarry two years before. They claimed he murdered the biker and dumped his body off the side of the road for money McGarry owed Hanline’s then-girlfriend
Hanline maintained his innocence from the start. The California Innocence Project began working on the case 15 years ago — 20 years after he was first convicted.
But the group’s big break came this year, when DNA evidence didn’t match Hanline’s. Instead, the DNA of another person was found on the evidence, Ventura County Deputy D.A. Michael Lief said.
The mismatched DNA prompted a judge to order his release Monday — his 36 years behind bars is the longest a wrongfully convicted California inmate has ever served.
“Through the miracle of DNA, we’ve added an extra piece to the puzzle here that showed that the evidence he was convicted on was false and we now have this DNA evidence to show that he did not commit this crime,” California Innocence Project spokesman Justin Brooks said at a Monday press conference.
Hanline was released with a GPS ankle bracelet, which he’ll wear while the District Attorney decides weather or not a lunch a retrial.
For now, he’ll head home, to a brand new world.
“I can’t really express the feelings that I got inside me because it’s just like a whirlwind. It’s a whole new ball game,” Hanline said. “I mean, you know, it’s an age of cellphones and technology and all that stuff is new. I’m a dinosaur.”
Police are reinvestigating the 1978 murder, including the new DNA evidence.