Joseph Sledge became a free man on Friday after a three-judge panel declared him innocent of a 1976 murder for which he had been convicted.

Seventy-year-old Sledge, who always maintained his innocence, had already spent 37 years behind bars.

As WRAL reported: “Last month, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission recommended the case of Joseph Sledge for judicial review after newly discovered evidence cast doubt on whether he had anything to do with the killings of Josephine Davis, 74, and Ailene Davis, 53, in their Elizabethtown home.”

Sledge escaped from prison in 1976 where he was serving a four-year sentence for misdemeanor convictions. The same night of his escape, Josephine Davis and her daughter Ailene were murdered.