VIDEO:  Innocent man released after 35 years in prison

Jamie Bain spent 35 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

Today, he was freed based on new DNA evidence.

For the first time in three and a half decades he’s not confined to a prison cell,

But more than that, his name is cleared as DNA evidence proves he did not commit a 1974 kidnapping and rape.

Bain expected a judge would release him Thursday morning.

But he thought it would be with some restrictions as the state finished its review of new d-n-a evidence that seemed to exonerate him.

Then, literally moments before the court hearing this morning, a new round of lab results came in from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that cleared Bain for good and made his freedom no strings attached.

Those DNA tests proved Bain did not kidnap or rape a 9-year-old boy back in 1974.

So, with a quick switch of paperwork and a signature from the judge, Bain’s impending release became a clearing of his name, an erasing of his conviction, and a beginning of his freedom.

It’s hard for anyone to fully understand all that Bain has been through.

35 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

There are the big things he missed: college, marriage, children.

And the little things he’ll have to learn, like using a cell phone.

You’d think so much missed would make a person angry, but not Jamie Bain.

“I guess I kind of felt like when they first landed on the moon. We have touchdown,“ Bain said today.

So now he focuses on the future, the plans he has right away.

“No more than spend time with my family more than anything else because of the separation.“

This incredible story is really possible because of an organization called the Innocence Project of Florida.

It’s an advocacy group that fights for the rights of wrongly convicted prisoners.

Bain will receive $50,000 for every year he spent behind bars.