Michigan man, 63, wrongfully convicted of murder is finally released from prison after 37 years as key witness admits she lied

A Michigan man who spent more than 37 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was finally freed last month after a key witness admitted that she had lied. 

Walter Forbes, 63, walked free on November 20 from the state's Kinross Correctional Facility where he had spent 37 years following the wrongful conviction for murder and arson. 

Forbes was arrested back in 1982 and sentenced to life in prison after a man, Dennis Hall, died in an apartment fire that had been deliberately lit. 

He became a suspect in the case after it emerged that Forbes has broken up a bar fight between Hall and another man, the Detroit Free Press reports. 

Walter Forbes, 63, walked free on November 20 from the state's Kinross Correctional Facility where he had spent 37 years following the wrongful conviction for murder and arson

Hall went on to shoot Forbes the day after he had broken up the fight. Hall ended up dying soon after when a fire was deliberately set in his apartment. 

Police immediately considered Forbes to be a suspect given their recent altercations. 

Testimony from a woman named Annice Kennebrew helped convict Forbes.

As the prosecution's key witness, Kennebrew testified that she saw Forbes and two other men threw gasoline on the apartment building and set fire to it. 

Due to inconsistencies in her testimony, one of the other men was acquitted and the other had his charges dropped after he passed a polygraph test. 

Forbes was the only one convicted, which his lawyers argued was only a result of his altercations with the victim. 

Kennebrew eventually came forward in 2017 and admitted that she had lied, according to court documents. 

Forbes was released from prison on November 20 and reunited with his family

Following his release, Forbes said that even though Kennebrew's lies got him convicted, he is 'grateful she did the right thing, that she did finally tell the truth'

The judge ordered an evidentiary hearing that was held in February this year during which Kennebrew testified that she did not see Forbes the night of the fire. 

She said she made the false claims after two local men threatened to harm her and her family if she didn't implicate Forbes in the crime.  

Kennebrew will not face any perjury charges for her false testimony because the statute of limitations is six years. 

Following his release, Forbes said that even though Kennebrew's lies got him convicted, he is 'grateful she did the right thing, that she did finally tell the truth'.  

Prosecutors later learned that the owner of the apartment building, David Jones, had previously been convicted in an arson conspiracy scheme in a nearby county in 1990. 

Two men who admitted to conspiring with Jones in the second fire told police that he was involved in the fire that Forbes was wrongfully linked to. 

Jones, who received a $50,000 insurance payout from the initial fire, died before the Michigan Innocence Clinic took up Forbes' case in 2010.