Former Arkansas death row inmate freed after 16 years

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(AP) – An Arkansas man who spent 16 years in prison before his
case was dismissed has walked out of prison a free man.The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Rickey Dale Newman was released from the Crawford County jail on Wednesday, after a special prosecutor dropped charges in a 2001 killing.

Newman spent about a dozen years on death row before court rulings barred prosecutors from using incriminating statements Newman made in a police interview. He’d been convicted in the mutilation slaying of 46-year-old Marie Cholette, a fellow transient, at a camp in Van Buren.

Newman says he’s a bit nervous to be free because he has no “idea what this world is all about.” Newman says he doesn’t know where he’ll go, but says he won’t stay in the area.

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