Two Georgia Men Set Free This December After Serving 25 years Following Wrongful Conviction.

After more than two decades in jail, two Georgia men were released from prison after a true crime podcast disclosed new evidence that exonerated them and established their innocence.

According to a news release from the Georgia Innocence Project, Darrell Lee Clark and his co-defendant Cain Joshua Storey were released from jail last week after serving more than 25 years in prison for the 1996 shooting that resulted in the death of 15-year-old Brian Bowling, a friend of the two.

New evidence from the true-crime podcast Proof called into question the prosecution's claim that Clark and Storey planned to murder Bowling.

“You never think something like that is going to happen to you,” said Lee Clark, he expressed gratitude to the Innocence Project and the podcast for assisting in his release.

“It’s been surreal to say the least,” Storey added. “I believe it’s going to be great. One step at a time.”

Bowling died on October 18, 1996, after being shot in the head.

Bowling had been on the phone with his girlfriend moments before his death, informing her that he was playing Russian roulette with a gun.

Storey, Bowling's best friend, had brought the gun over. When the gun was fired, Storey was also in the room with Bowling.

Storey was initially charged with manslaughter in relation with Bowling's death, claiming the shooting was unintentional but nonetheless illegal. However, at the request of Bowling's family, authorities began investigating his death as a murder, implying far more serious accusations.

Police interviewed a woman who lived near the Bowlings' house to help develop their case. The woman claimed she overheard Storey and Clark discussing their plans to kill Bowling at a party months after the incident. Storey and Clark, according to the woman, wanted to kill Bowling because he knew too much about a theft the duo had committed.

In addition, authorities spoke with a person with hearing and speech impairments who was in a separate part of the house at the time of the shooting. Clark was seen racing out of the Bowling's house and through the back yard, according to the witness.

During the trial, prosecutors relied on the testimony of a coroner who stated that he had a "gut feeling" that the gunshot could not have been self-inflicted in the manner that it might if they were indeed playing Russian roulette. However, the coroner was not a medical practitioner, and Bowling was never autopsied.

In 1998, Storey and Clark were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. At the age of 17, they were both sentenced to life in jail.

Proof podcasters Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis began investigating Storey and Clark's case in 2021. The two spoke with the major witnesses on whom prosecutors relied in convicting Storey and Clark.

They discovered that the woman had been forced by police to falsely declare that she had overheard Storey and Clark discussing any plans to murder Bowling after police threatened to take her children away.

The Proof podcasters also discovered that the police's second witness had been misunderstood during the trial and was referring about an unrelated shooting in 1976. During the shooting, the guy had never seen any boy outside the Bowling property.

“It took us a long time to talk to both of those witnesses,” Jacinda Davis told CNN.

“The podcast was happening in almost real time as an investigation. When we finally found and were able to talk to those two witnesses, it really solidified that both of these guys had been wrongly convicted.”

Clark's attorneys filed petitions claiming that Clark's conviction was based on false evidence and coercion.

Clark was released from Floyd County Jail after court officials agreed that his conviction should be overturned entirely due to fresh evidence. That finding practically declared him innocent of any offense.

Meanwhile, Storey's murder-related charges were also withdrawn against him. He had previously acknowledged to taking the gun to Bowling on the night he told his girlfriend he was playing Russian roulette.

So Storey reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for the ten years he had already served, allowing him to be released immediately.

“You never think something like that is going to happen to you,” said Lee Clark, who thanked the Innocence Project and the podcast for helping secure his release.

“It’s been surreal to say the least,” Storey added. “I believe it’s going to be great. One step at a time.”