'He was failed': Wrongly convicted man freed after 28 years

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Chester Hollman III was given an apology in court on Tuesday for being wrongly charged and convicted for a 1991 murder. A crime for which he was imprisoned for 28 years. Anticipating today's final hearing, Hollman was released from prison 15 days ago.

The apology came from Patricia Cummings who is the head of the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. The Unit did a 15-month reinvestigation of the case. Its findings found multiple problems. Among them, evidence discovered in police files indicated credible evidence that led to another likely suspect was suppressed.

After apologizing, Cummings said of Hollman, "He was failed, we failed the victims and failed the citizens of Philadelphia."

After the hearing where all charges were dropped, Hollman said he felt relief, he was grateful adding, "To come so far through this journey, 28 years I just never thought it was going to happen."

He has always maintained he was innocent.

Hollman, 49, had been convicted as being part of the shooting death of a University of Pennsylvania student Tae-Jung Ho.

The DA's office would not comment if there is an active investigation currently into the other suspect in the police files.