There are many ways to measure 30 years , but for Glenn Ford , the yardstick is simple . `` My sons -- when I left -- was babies . Now they grown men with babies , '' he said , speaking as a free man for the first time in nearly three decades . Ford , Louisiana 's longest-serving death row prisoner , walked free Tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit . `` My mind 's going all kinds of directions , but it feels good , '' Ford , 64 , told reporters outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola , according to CNN affiliate WAFB . One reporter asked whether he harbors any resentment . `` Yeah , because I was locked up almost 30 years for something I did n't do , '' said Ford , who wore a denim shirt , a hat and dark-rimmed glasses . `` Thirty years of my life , if not all of it , '' he said , WAFB reported . `` I ca n't go back . '' According to the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana , a judge ordered that Ford be freed Monday after prosecutors petitioned the court to release him . New information corroborated what Ford had said all along : that he was not present at nor involved in the November 5 , 1983 , slaying of Isadore Rozeman , the project said . `` We are very pleased to see Glenn Ford finally exonerated , and we are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so decisively to set Mr. Ford free , '' said Gary Clements and Aaron Novod , Ford 's attorneys . They have argued his trial was compromised by the unconstitutional suppression of evidence and by inexperienced counsel . Ford had been on death row since 1984 , making him one of the longest-serving death row prisoners in the United States . `` After 30 years , Louisiana 's longest-serving death row prisoner will get his freedom soon , '' Amnesty International USA senior campaigner Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris said in a statement shortly before his release . `` Glenn Ford is living proof of just how flawed our justice system truly is . We are moved that Mr. Ford , an African-American man convicted by an all-white jury , will be able to leave death row a survivor . '' Innocent man : How inmate Michael Morton lost 25 years of his life . Woman sentenced to death walks free , thanks to victim 's grandson .
Glenn Ford was behind bars for a murder he did not commit . `` My sons -- when I left -- was babies . Now they grown men with babies , '' he says . Ford had been on death row since 1984 for the murder of Isadore Rozeman .