By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

A Louisiana man was released from death row after serving 15 years for a crime that DNA evidence shows he did not commit.

Damon Thibodeaux, 38, was the 300th prisoner nationwide to see his conviction overturned based on DNA evidence, according to lawyers who represented him from the New York-based Innocence Project. He was the 18th death row prisoner freed based on such evidence.

“This journey to freedom was a long time coming,” said one of his attorneys, Caroline Tillman of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, in a statement. “The solitary conditions that Mr. Thibodeaux was forced to live under as a death row inmate were almost more than he could bear at times, but he never gave up hope that one day he would be free.”

There are 86 people on Louisiana’s death row, including two women, a corrections spokeswoman said.

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Source: Los Angeles Times