A man who was wrongly imprisoned for 30 years has died less than six months after the verdict was overturned and he was released from jail.
Claude Francis Garrett, 65, had been convicted for the murder by arson of his girlfriend Lorie Lee Lance in 1993 but was freed in May this year after errors were found in the evidence during the trial in Tennessee.
Claude Garrett served 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit before his release from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
And journalist Liliana Segura said that he has died just five months later on October 30.
She tweeted: "There is no easy way to share this news. Claude Garrett died yesterday, less than 6 months after he was exonerated and released from prison. He appears to have died in his sleep. He was just short of his 66th birthday."
She continued: "I don't have words yet; it's heartbreaking and deeply unfair. Claude spent 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He fought so hard. He was patient, focused, and when the day finally came, careful not to exhale prematurely. Not until he knew the state wouldn't appeal.
“Since then, and over the past 5 months, Claude relished his freedom. He enjoyed every moment with his daughter, Deana, and especially his grandson, who he absolutely adored.”
The incorrect verdict against Claude related to a fire that started in the living room of the couple's home in Old Hickory.
He told police that he had fallen asleep and woke up to see the blaze, he then woke up his girlfriend and tried to take her to the front door but she headed for the back door.
Claude said he called the fire brigade after leaving the building.
When they arrived, Claude was trying to put the fire out with a hose and had tried to smash open a door with an axe, reported the Daily Star.
As firefighters tried to get the fire under control, Claude kept telling them “I don’t understand why, I don’t understand why she didn’t follow me out the door”.
After the fire was eventually extinguished, firefighters later found Lorie’s body in a utility room. She had died from smoke inhalation.
Investigators later alleged that scorch patterns at the scene suggested the fire was started deliberately and he was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty.
But after years of appeals, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins ruled on May 6 that there was “clear and convincing” proof that the supposed evidence of arson had since been dismissed as "junk science".
Judge Watkins concluded: ”The court is satisfied that (the) petitioner has presented clear and convincing evidence showing that no reasonable jury would have convicted Claude Garrett of felony murder in light of the new scientific evidence."
Ms Segura, also a friend of Mr Garrett, said she was "angry" at his lost time in prison.
"Watching Claude leave prison was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. I’m grateful to have been there, grateful he didn’t die in a cage. But I’m angry at the decades he lost, angry at the way incarceration and trauma cut his life short. He tried so hard to be healthy," she tweeted.
"Claude had plans. He wanted the state to be held accountable for his wrongful conviction. He wanted compensation. It is unfathomable to me that the people most responsible for stealing so much of his life will never have to confront what they did, that they will outlive him."
