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US man freed 40 years after wrongful conviction A 76-year-old man who spent nearly every day of the last four decades in prison walked free after a judge found that deputies extracted his confession to a 1962 robbery by crushing his fingers between cell bars. After walking out of the Angelina County jail Tuesday with his wife, Robert Carroll Coney said he was not bitter. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to try to pick up the pieces,鈥� Coney said. 鈥淚f I was angry, what could I do about it?鈥� Sheriff condoned practice Coney said his identity had been confused with a man he had carpooled with through Lufkin on the day of the robbery. State District Judge David Wilson, who dismissed Coney鈥檚 charges, investigated and found that the sheriff of Angelina County at the time and his deputies used physical force to extract confessions, often crushing prisoners鈥� fingers between jail cell bars. When Wilson questioned Coney, the prisoner held up two twisted and bent fingers. 鈥淚 remember the sheriff well,鈥� Coney said. 'Darker years' for legal system 鈥淚t really contains everybody鈥檚 worst fears about what went on during certain darker years in this country,鈥� said Huntsville attorney David P. O鈥橬eill, who worked on Coney鈥檚 case. Coney said he may consider a civil suit at some point but initially wants to focus on his family. Holding his wife鈥檚 hand as he left the jail Tuesday for their Dallas home, Coney said little about the ordeal. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going home,鈥� Coney said. |
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