NEW ORLEANS — After 30 years inside prison, an innocent New Orleans man was finally able to take his first breath as a free man.
"It's unbelievable you know from the dungeon to back to life again," Moses said. "I really thought I was gonna die in jail."
Larry Moses, 68, was given a life sentence for first-degree murder in 1995. Now, outside Moses is experiencing freedom for the first time in nearly three decades.
"This is the most wonderful day. Right now being free, me talking to you... it's real good, really feel good feeling," Moses told Eyewitness News.
In an exclusive interview with WWL-TV, Moses talked about how he grappled with his sentence.
"Instead a feeling sorry for yourself, you say oh well ain't much I could do about it, but get stronger, because if I give up and feel sorry for myself I'm gonna disappear," Moses said. "Don't stop fighting you know? And that's what I did."
Moses was sentenced to life-in-prison for two counts of first-degree murder. The crime happened at the intersection of Feliciana and Humanity Streets in New Orleans, in 1994. According to Innocence Project New Orleans, a suspect approached two people and attempted to rob them, the suspect then shot them both, Larry Moses was convicted of that crime.
Innocence Project New Orleans attorney Charell Arnold said Moses was spared the death sentence by a single juror's vote.
"Mr. Moses is innocent. He has provided evidence of his innocence," Arnold said.
According to Arnold, IPNO investigators found the state did not reveal evidence to the defense and his conviction was based on false testimony, and he wasn’t even in town when the shooting happened.
"In this case... the sole eyewitness or a man who claimed to be an eyewitness, both had motivation to lie, and to implicate Mr. Moses over a romantic rivalry, and that this eyewitness actually had pretty severe mental health problems and was committed and underwent a psychiatric evaluation," Arnold said.
In late May, a judge granted Moses post-conviction relief and vacated the verdict of his initial trial, but the fight isn't over.
"The charges were not dropped by the district attorney's office... he's been granted a new trial, that means he's actually he could actually have a new trial," Arnold said.
For now, the 68-year-old father to 18 children, a grandfather to 30 and a great-grandfather to four, said all he wants is to see his family and eat seafood.
"First thing, get to know my babies," Moses said. "I gotta get my teeth fixed. I gotta get some new glasses, you know, then sit around and get used to being free."
As for seafood.
"I want me some crawfish," Moses said. "There's some crab and some burl shrimp."
Innocence Project New Orleans has won the release of 44 innocent people from prison.
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