VENTURA, Calif. – Prosecutors in Southern California say a man who has spent 36 years behind bars for murder was wrongly convicted and could be released next week.
The Ventura County District Attorney's office announced Tuesday that new evidence resulted in a judge overturning the conviction of 69-year-old Michael Hanline.
Hanline was found guilty in 1980 of first-degree murder in the 1978 death of Ventura resident J.T. McGarry.
New DNA testing of crime scene evidence found material that came from a man who isn't Hanline or his alleged accomplice.
Hanline is expected to be released following a court hearing Monday. Prosecutors will conduct an investigation and decide whether to retry him.
The California Innocence Project, which took up the case in 1999, says Hanline's case was the longest wrongful incarceration in state history.
