Judge grants new trial for Alabama Death Row inmate whose DNA did not match

After recent DNA testing raised questions, a Montgomery man who Alabama has kept on a death row for 31 years will get another shot at justice. A federal judge has ordered a new trial in the 1992 murder case that landed Christopher Barbour in prison.

The ruling comes as Alabama prosecutors have pushed to explain away the DNA found on the victim, which points to someone already in an Alabama prison for an unrelated rape and murder.

Barbour, 55, was convicted more than three decades ago of the brutal slaying of Thelma Roberts, a single mother of two, when he was a homeless teenager living behind the mall in Montgomery. He confessed to the crime initially, although he said he was beaten by Montgomery police, and immediately tried to take back the confession. He has maintained his innocence in the more than three decades since.

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