NEW YORK CITY, New York: A man who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a roughly US$550 robbery that he did not commit was exonerated and freed on March 16.

"It cost me 20 years, but they said they corrected it now. So that's all that matters. So I'm good with that," Kenneth Windley, 61, said as he left a Brooklyn courthouse, at liberty for the first time since 2007.

A judge dismissed his conviction and his case entirely, following a request from both prosecutors and Windley's lawyers. Prosecutors said new evidence, including confessions from two other men who were convicted of similar robberies, supported his longstanding claim of innocence.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said the case shows how things may look one way at first but turn out to be very different after careful review. After shaking Windley's hand outside the court, Gonzalez said that if prosecutors had fully understood the evidence earlier, the case should never have been brought. He also said he had already apologized to Windley in private.

Windley was arrested in 2005 after he bought a stove for his mother using a money order that was later found to be stolen.

The money order had been taken from 70-year-old Gerald Ross by two thieves who followed him home after he visited a bank and a post office. According to prosecutors, the thieves attacked Ross, put him in a chokehold, and stole money orders, cash, and his bank book.

Ross regularly bought money orders at that post office to pay his rent and his life insurance premiums. This helped him, and investigators tracked what happened after the robbery. The trail led to Windley because he had used his real name, driver's license, and address when buying the stove at an appliance store.

From the beginning, Windley said he was not involved in the robbery. He explained that he had bought a $542.77 money order at a lower price from two people he knew, who told him it was valid but said they could not use it themselves for some official reason.

One of Windley's lawyers, David Shanies, told the court that Windley had been tricked.

Ross later identified Windley as one of the attackers, first through photos and then in a live lineup, both held more than six weeks after the robbery. At his trial, Windley told the jury how the two men had approached him and sold him the money order. However, the jury found him guilty of robbery in 2007. Because he had previous felony convictions, he was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. His appeals were unsuccessful.

Early in the case, Windley gave prosecutors details about the two men who sold him the money order, including their nicknames and some information about their real names. After his conviction, a friend and private investigators helped identify the men and convinced them to come forward, according to the district attorney's report.

In sworn statements and interviews with the district attorney's office, the two men admitted they had robbed Ross together and said Windley was not involved. The report described their statements as very convincing.

Prosecutors said that if the jury had known about these men and their past crimes, it would likely have created reasonable doubt about Windley's guilt.

On the afternoon of March 16, as Windley left to celebrate with his family, he said he did not feel bitter about what had happened and that he planned to move forward with his life.