A New York City man who spent more than two decades in prison for a crime he says he did not commit is officially free, but not exonerated. 

A judge ruled Monday that Andre Brown’s 23 years spent in prison count as the full sentence for his attempted murder conviction in the Bronx and he does not have to go back into lockup. 

Maintaining his innocence

Brown, 48, was found guilty in a 1999 shooting that left two teenagers badly hurt and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but he denied committing the crime throughout his prison term. 

“This is the very first steps of me moving forward in my life without the fear of going back behind prison walls,” Brown said. 

In 2022, Brown was released when a judge overturned the conviction, saying Brown’s lawyer at the time was ineffective and that new medical evidence showed Brown had a leg injury and could not have run like the gunman. 

Prosecutors appealed and a higher court reinstated Brown’s conviction, saying the lawyer’s decision not to use that evidence might have been a strategy, not a mistake.

The higher court’s ruling meant that Brown still had 17 years left to serve on paper, leaving him in limbo for the last three years as he was not immediately returned to prison. 

“Terror in my heart, just the thought process of losing my loved ones again,” Brown said. 

“We didn’t know which way this would go,” his attorney Oscar Michelen said.

The judge on Monday ruled 23 years behind bars was enough and resentenced him to time served. 

“I’m able to be a father and husband now” 

Brown’s family, including his wife and two children, and supporters celebrated as he walked out of court, marking the end of a long legal battle in a case that Brown said cost him half of his life.  

“I have my wife here. I have my son, my beautiful daughter, and I’m able to be a father and a husband now. I’m able to really enjoy what it means to be free, to breathe fresh air. Just to be able to have love given to me again without the confines of a wall,” Brown said. 

“Mainly [I’m feeling] relief,” wife Tameka Brown said. “There’s been a lot of anxiety, a lot of sleepless nights.” 

“No more tears. More smiles, more happy faces just in time for the holidays,” stepdaughter Trinity Soto said. 

Brown and his attorneys said they will continue working to clear his name.

“We have no doubt about his innocence,” Michelen said. 

Brown said he plans to keep mentoring at-risk youth and helping others reenter society after prison. 

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