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   Two Ohio men wrongly accused of murder experienced freedom for the first time in nearly four decades on Friday morning, but said they don’t harbor bitterness over their unjust imprisonment. 
   
   A Cleveland judge on Wednesday had dropped all charges against Ricky Jackson, 57, and Wiley Bridgeman, 60, allowing for the pair’s release. 
   
   Jackson was 19 when he was convicted along with Bridgeman and Bridgeman’s brother, Ronnie, in the 1975 shooting death and robbery of Harold Franks, a Cleveland-area money order salesman. 
   
   Testimony from a 12-year-old witness helped point to Jackson as the triggerman and led a jury to convict all three. Ronnie Bridgeman, now known as Kwame Ajamu, was paroled from prison in 2003. 
   
   The witness, Edward Vernon, now 53, recanted his testimony last year, saying he was coerced by detectives, according to Cuyahoga County court documents. Vernon wrote in a 2013 affidavit that he never saw the murder take place, but he was told by detectives that if he didn’t testify against Jackson, his parents would be arrested. 
   
   Vernon said he confided in a pastor several years after meeting with Bridgeman, and the pastor encouraged him to reach out to the Innocence Project. Vernon wrote that he had “been waiting to tell the truth about this for a long time.” 
   
   “A lot of people think I should be mad,” said Jackson, but “in ’75, he was a 12-year-old-kid.” Jackson said “it took a lot of courage” for the witness to recant his statement. 
   
   The Ohio Innocence Project, which took up the case, said Jackson had been the longest-held U.S. prisoner to be exonerated. 
   
   Jackson was originally sentenced to death, but that sentence was vacated because of a paperwork error. The Bridgeman brothers remained on death row until Ohio declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1978. 
   
   “One of them came within 20 days of execution before Ohio ruled the death penalty unconstitutional” said Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project. 
   
   “The bitterness is over with,” said Wylie Bridgeman during his first moments of freedom on Friday. 
   
   Jackson agreed. “I had plans for my life,” but “time is just something that you can't get back so I'm not going to really cry about it,” he said. 
   
   While Ohio provides compensation for those who are wrongfully imprisoned, everyone is not guaranteed money. The Ohio Innocence Project has set up a fund for Jackson. 
   
   A story published in Scene Magazine in 2011 first raised new questions about the murder and whether Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers actually committed the crime. 
   
   Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said in court Tuesday that without an eyewitness there was not much of a case. “The state is conceding the obvious," he said, according to Reuters. 
   
   NBC News' Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed. ||||| CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ricky Jackson left his life behind bars today, walking out of the Justice Center after spending 39 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. 
   
   "Finally, finally,'' he said, as he walked past guards and into the arms of one of his attorneys, Brian Howe. Jackson smiled and met well-wishers and childhood friends. As he left the Justice Center, he took in his first breaths of fresh air, placing his hands to his face in shock. 
   
   "It's extraordinary,'' he told reporters earlier. "I'm glad to be out.... It has been an emotional roller coaster. The English language doesn't have the words to express how I'm feeling right now.'' 
   
   He repeatedly thanked the Ohio Innocence Project, and he thanked county prosecutors for showing the integrity to drop the case. Jackson also had kind words for Eddie Vernon, the boy whose testimony helped convict him in 1975. Vernon recanted his testimony, saying he lied to help police and was then manipulated by detectives. 
   
   "I don't hate him,'' Jackson said. "He's a grown man today, he was just a boy back then.'' 
   
   Jackson wished Vernon the best and said, "It took a lot of courage to do what he did.'' 
   
   Jackson, 57, has been in prison since he was 18. He has served more time behind bars than anyone who has ever been released from prison on a wrongful conviction, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. 
   
   This week, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty dropped the charges against Jackson, who was seeking a new trial. The move came after the witness who put Jackson and two other men behind bars – Vernon, who was 12 at the time of the murder – recanted and admitted that he had lied to judges and juries about the men's role in the slaying of Harold Franks. 
   
   McGinty told Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle that the case against Jackson had evaporated after Vernon – and several others who were with him that day – testified about his lies earlier this week. Vernon said he simply wanted to help police. He said a friend gave him the names, and Vernon told police he saw the slaying. 
   
   In fact, he said, he wasn't close, as the school bus he rode was not near the crime scene, the Fairmont Cut-Rite on Fairhill Road, which is now Stoke Boulevard. And later, detectives fed him information on the case, he said. The web of lies led to juries to convict him and two others, Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman. Wiley Bridgeman had remained in prison, while his brother was released after serving more than 25 years in prison. 
   
   Wiley Bridgeman was released later this morning. 
   
   Attorneys Terry Gilbert and David Mills represent the brothers. They also had asked for a new trial, based on Vernon's new testimony. Today, Common Pleas Judge David Matia dropped the case against one of the brothers, Wiley Bridgeman. His brother, Ronnie, is seeking to have his record cleared. 
   
   Authorities said two men attacked Franks as he walked to the store. They beat him, threw acid in his face and one of the men shot him twice with a .38-caliber. The shooter also fired a round that hit Anna Robinson, the wife of the store's owner. The men stole Franks' briefcase and fled to a waiting car. Authorities accused Jackson of shooting Franks. 
   
   There was no evidence linking the three men to the crime. Vernon said that once he told authorities the names of the three and the fact that he saw the slaying, Cleveland police fed him information about the crime and what happened. 
   
   Vernon came forward after he spoke with his pastor, the Rev. Anthony Singleton of the Emmanuel Christian Center, last year. He admitted that he never saw anything; he said he instantly became relieved. The admission came two years after Scene Magazine wrote about the case and questioned Vernon's testimony. 
   
   McGinty's office will not charge Vernon. He had claimed that he hid the lies for years, saying he detectives told him that if he mentioned what he did, they would put his parents in prison for perjury. 
   
   Ronnie Bridgeman watched McMonagle release Jackson in a brief court hearing this morning. Bridgeman was in tears. 
   
   "I can't explain it,'' Bridgeman said. "This is great.'' 
   
   McMonagle gave Jackson one last piece of advice: "Life is filled with small victories, and this is a big one. Know who your friends are because everybody will want a piece of you. You better trust the people who you can trust.'' 
   
   Plain Dealer reporter Rachel Dissell contributed to this report.
target: – After nearly 40 years in prison, a man convicted in a 1975 Cleveland slaying has walked out of the county jail as a free man. Ricky Jackson, 57, was dismissed from the Cuyahoga County Jail and walked out of the adjoining courthouse this morning about an hour after a judge dismissed his case. The dismissal came after the key witness—then a 13-year-old boy—at trial against Jackson and brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman recanted last year and said Cleveland police detectives coerced him into testifying that the three killed businessman Harry Franks on the afternoon of May 19, 1975. About two hours later, Wiley Bridgeman was also dismissed; Ronnie Bridgeman, who now goes by the name Kwame Ajamu, got out on parole in 2003, NBC News reports. "Finally, finally," Jackson said as he left the Cleveland Justice Center Complex, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Jackson, who was just 18 when he entered prison, offered gratitude toward the Ohio Innocence Project (which says that of all exonerated US prisoners, he spent the most time behind bars) and county prosecutors and absolved Eddie Vernon, the boy whose testimony helped put him away. "I don't hate him," he tells the Plain Dealer. "He's a grown man today, he was just a boy back then. It took a lot of courage to do what he did." Because when it comes down to it, he's just happy to finally be free. "The English language doesn't have the words to express how I'm feeling right now.''