3 Maryland men arrested as teens for murder exonerated after serving 36 years behind bars

Three Maryland men who were convicted of murder in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison were exonerated on Monday.

In November 1983, a 14-year-old boy, DeWitt Duckett, was shot in the neck inside Harlem Park Junior High in Baltimore. Duckett died, and authorities said he was killed over his Georgetown University Starter jacket. Police soon arrested 16-year-olds Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins, and Andrew Stewart, charging them with murder. Four students identified the three teens as the culprits, and prosecutors presented as evidence a Georgetown jacket found inside Chestnut's closet. After their conviction, the judge sentenced the teens to life in prison.

On Monday, prosecutors said the jacket was in fact purchased by Chestnut's mother, and was not the one stolen from Duckett. Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby also revealed that the four students who identified Chestnut, Watkins, and Stewart were coached and coerced into saying they were the killers, The Baltimore Sun reports. Those witnesses have since recanted, and it has also emerged police withheld exculpatory evidence, including that several other students identified another man as Duckett's killer. He died in 2002.

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Chestnut, Watkins, and Stewart were greeted by friends and family after their release from prison on Monday night. As Chestnut embraced his mother, he told the crowd, "My mama, right here, this is what she's been holding onto forever, to see her son come home."