ClintEhrlich

Ray is obviously thrilled. But to be honest, you can barely tell the difference, because he had SUCH a good attitude whenever I visited him in prison.

He truly believes that God is watching over him and that everything will work out in the end. If I'd lost 11 years of my life, I would be bitter and angry. But he just radiates happiness and gratitude. It's truly inspirational.

It sounds like a lot of money... until you realize you have to spend 11 years in prison to earn it.

And that they do their best to avoid ever actually paying up... :-/

I applaud the LA DA's Conviction Review Unit. Its head, Ken Lynch, is one of the best men I've ever met.

Ray is entitled by statute to $140 for every day he was wrongfully behind bars. Unfortunately, it can take YEARS before this money is actually paid. That's why I created this GoFundMe to help him right now: https://www.gofundme.com/RayJennings

I saw the Dateline episode around midnight and I was confused how they convicted this guy so I went and read the Court of Appeal's decision. It made no sense, so I freaked out and stayed up until 7AM reading everything I could about the case.

The next day, I was having lunch with my dad in Chipotle, and I asked him, "If there were an innocent man in prison, would you help me free him?" He said to send him the opinion. I did... and he flipped out too.

We got our hands on the record, got in touch with Ray, got him to fire the Innocence Project, and then spent months scouring the record so we understood every aspect of the case. Together, we drafted a 34-page letter to the Conviction Review Unit (which you can see on the Ehrlich Firm website), which laid out all the evidence of Ray's innocence and also destroyed every aspect of the prosecution's case.

A secretary at the CRU read the letter, freaked out and showed it to Ken Lynch, who realized this was a BFD and assigned his ENTIRE UNIT to the case. They made a recommendation which resulted in a joint LAPD/Sheriff's Department investigation with 4+ detectives working full time.

The wait was excruciating, but after several months the DA's office agreed to admit that they had lost confidence in the conviction because they felt someone else committed the murder. On Thursday, we showed up in court, the State told that to the judge, and Ray got to walk out a free man.

There is now an active investigation to find the real killer. I feel very good about its prospects, but can't comment on the specifics.

Ray's family and friends have always known he was innocent. They are overjoyed that the justice system has finally recognized what was so clear to them for all these years.