27 Mar 2014

Woman freed after 32 years in jail

8:47 am on 27 March 2014

A woman in California who has spent 32 years in prison for a killing she has always said she did not commit has been freed.

Mary Virginia Jones, 74, was convicted in 1981 of homicide, kidnapping and robbery.

She had been found to have acted as an accomplice in the killing of a drug dealer by Mose Willis, her companion at the time.

On Monday, Judge William Ryan of the Los Angeles Superior Court has now overturned her conviction and ordered her release.

Law students from the University of Southern California argued that Willis forced her at gunpoint to lead the dealer into an alley where he was shot dead.

"I did not willingly participate in this crime," Jones told the court.

Willis died on death row while awaiting execution.