Six years ago this week, Ryan Matthews was exonerated after spending five years on Louisiana’s death row for a murder he didn’t commit.

Matthews was 17 years old when he and his friend Travis Hayes were charged with committing a murder in Bridge City, Louisiana. After six hours of interrogation, Hayes falsely confessed to being the getaway driver. A witness to the shooting said he saw the perpetrator in his rearview mirror and identified Matthews in a highly suggestive police procedure. Both men were convicted – Hayes was sentenced to life in prison and Matthews to death.

After years of appeals, attorneys representing Matthews requested DNA comparison on an alternate suspect. The DNA profile from the murder implicated the alternate suspect – proving Matthews and Hayes innocent. Matthews was released in June 2004 and officially cleared in August.  Hayes would not be freed until January of 2007.

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