Wrongfully Convicted Black Man Freed After 87 Years

BALD KNOB, NC - A black man was released from a North Carolina prison yesterday after serving 87 years for a crime he maintains he didn't commit.

Convicted of the rape and murder of a white woman abducted from outside a Woolworth's in 1934, Kirby Jones claims that he was nowhere near the store in question that day.

"I've never been to a Woolworth's in my life," Jones, now 94, claims. "Also, I was only seven at the time."

"It was almost a century ago, but I know exactly where I was when that lady got killed. Working," Jones related. "Just like every other day."

Jones, whose father had been murdered the year prior to his arrest, suspects his conviction was racially motivated.

"Because after they killed my daddy, I was the only black man left in town," he says.

Though acknowledging no wrongdoing in Jones's case, Bald Knob officials have reportedly offered Jones an educational stipend to "help get his life back on track".