The State Supreme Court has ordered a prison inmate once facing execution to be set free unless the state wants to hold a new murder trial. Inmate Reginald Griffin originally had been sentenced to death for stabbing another inmate to death at the Moberly prison in 19-83. He was sentenced to life in prison when a new trial was held.

But the court has ruled 4-3 that the prosecutor withheld evidence that could have shown his innocence.

The state supreme court says the stated failed todisclose evidence that prison guards caught another inmate with a weapon near the murder scene. The court says five substantial developments since Griffin’s trial that it says require his release unless the prosecutor decides within 60 days to re-try him.

Source: Missourinet