A man who was in prison for almost three decades is going home after a judge vacated a first-degree murder conviction as part of a plea deal, according to a Duke University School of Law Wrongful Convictions Clinic news release.
Benjamin Cole, 47, was convicted of the 1998 murder of Calvin Jenkins, who was shot in his Greensboro apartment during a robbery. Cole has always maintained his innocence and said he was in Ohio at the time of the murder.
“I’m innocent, and I just want to be home,” he said.
That happened Wednesday as a judge vacated his first-degree murder conviction, and Cole pleaded guilty to a lesser second-degree murder charge on an Alford plea. An Alford plea is a guilty plea that lets a defendant maintain their innocence.
Cole left a Guilford County, North Carolina courtroom on Wednesday and was reunited with his mother.