A Minnesota man was released from prison after serving 16 years behind bars after a judge vacated his murder conviction for a crime prosecutors say he did not commit.

Edgar Barrientos-Quintana was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of killing 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in a drive-by shooting in Minneapolis in 2009.

In August, the conviction review unit of Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office released a damning report that identified several flaws in the case against Barrientos-Quintana.

State court judge John McBride Barrientos-Quintana’s conviction was annulled and ordered his release last week. More than a decade after the Hennepin County District Attorney’s Office indicted him, denied all accusations on Tuesday.

“Nothing will give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana back those 16 years, and for that we are very sorry,” Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty said at a news conference Tuesday. “When the penal system does not operate ethically, it causes serious harm.”

In the court order annulling the conviction, the judge concluded that Barrientos-Quintana did not receive a fair trial because prosecutors did not disclose all exculpatory evidence and his own lawyers did not represent him effectively.

Barrientos-Quintana expressed his gratitude to his legal team and family and said he never gave up hope of getting out of here.

“You knew this was going to happen, it’s just that the system is too slow,” Barrientos-Quintana said at the press conference. “I’m happy to be here, man. Best week, best weekend. And there’s more to come.

Reality television, an unreliable star witness and dubious photo lineup techniques

According to court documents, prosecutors in the Barrientos-Quintana case failed or refused to turn over “defense-favorable and important” evidence as required by law.

Prosecutors fail to name a crew from reality television show “The First 48”” He was working with Sergeant Christopher Gaiters and the lead investigator on the case, Robert Dale. According to court documents, producers gave Dale a written statement to be read to the cameras, and the show said the events were shown in a non-chronological order.

If this had been discovered, both sergeants could have been dismissed, according to legal documents. Prosecutors instead decided not to call Dale to testify, hoping to “avoid cross-examination that could harm their case.”

Marcelo “Sharky” Hernandez was the prosecution’s star witness. She claimed the attacker was in her car, but her story and timeline of events were inconsistent, according to court documents.

Prosecutors also failed to mention that multiple witnesses had named Hernandez as Mickelson’s potential hitman before the trial. According to McBride, this would have been “extremely exculpatory” for Barrientos-Quintana.

Gaiters said during his testimony that no one identified anyone other than Barrientos-Quintana as the possible shooter, and the prosecution made no attempt to redact the records to show the truth.

Gaiters currently serves as the Minneapolis Police Department’s deputy chief of community trust.

The attorney general’s report also found that the Minneapolis Police Department’s investigation violated its own protocols and best practices regarding photo identification lineups.

The report says photo lineup procedures were conducted by investigators who were already convinced of Barrientos-Quintana’s guilt and used tactics to suggest he was the prime suspect.

Eyewitnesses stated that the attacker was a bald or shaven-headed male with a beard and bushy eyebrows. According to Moriarty, Minneapolis police used an old photo of Barrientos-Quintana with his head shaved in their lineup, even though Barrientos-Quintana had “thick hair” the night he was shot.

The report stated that there was evidence to support Barriento-Quintana’s alibi. Security footage from 33 minutes before the shooting showed him at a grocery store across town, and phone records confirmed his story that he was at his girlfriend’s house immediately after the shooting, leaving him little time to travel to and from the scene of the crime.

Barrientos-Quintana’s guilty conviction was based on two factors: the testimony of Marcelo “Sharky” Hernandez and the identifications of eyewitnesses. Both were shaky at best, according to court documents. According to McBride, it is also a crime for the defense council not to defend against the prosecution’s case.

Barrientos-Quintana’s release comes 11 years after current defense attorney Julie Jonas began working on his case.

“He lost his freedom and his family lost their son, father, brother, uncle and nephew. This was a tragedy,” Jonas said in a statement obtained by CNN. “But watching Edgar reunite with more than 22 family members as he left the prison, with other inmates cheering him on in the background, was a truly enjoyable moment for all of us.”

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