That moment when justice is served, yet very very delayed.

After 41 years, Ledura Watkins finally got to walk out of Wayne County Jail a free man after the court overturned his conviction, according to the Associated Press.

Carried out in 1976, the conviction made based on single hair as evidence. The now 61-year-old Detroit man was only 20 years old when he was convicted of first-degree murder after 25-year-old Yvette Ingram was found shot dead following a home robbery.

“It’s really surreal … kind of unbelievable,” Watkins told reporters. “But I’m feeling great. I expected this to happen. I didn’t think it would take 41 years.”

Police laboratory technicians felt that a hair found at the scene seemed like Watkins' hair. This was, at the time, enough for jurors to send the man to prison.

Because the lab analysis made in 1976 doesn't meet current scientific standards for conviction, the Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School’s Innocence Project took on Watkins’ case and asked the court to set aside the conviction this past January.

Because of a lack of scientific rigor on the part of the police in 1976, Maria Miller of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office concluded that the evidence was flawed.

“It is simply a lab analyst’s subjective opinion and has no place in our criminal justice system. This is why a state-wide review of hair comparison cases is critical,” said Innocence Project director Marla Mitchell-Cichon in regards to the single hair evidence claim, which she believes not to be founded by actual science.

During his 41-year prison stint, Watkins worked diligently to clear his name. Now that he’s free? All he wants to do is have dinner with his family at a Chinese restaurant. “It took me years to get to this point. I don’t want to touch another law book,” Watkins said.

Thank goodness he gets to finally live his life. He’s unfortunately lost so much of it behind bars, but we wish him well going forward!

Ledura Watkins

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