North Carolina's governor is pardoning an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison until after the FBI admitted analysts it trained in tracing hair evidence repeatedly gave flawed evidence.

Gov. Pat McCrory's office said he called Timothy Scott Bridges on Thursday to tell him about the pardon of innocence. It makes Bridges eligible to receive up to $750,000 for the 24 years and seven months he was unjustly imprisoned.

Bridges was released from prison 13 months ago. He was sentenced to life for the 1989 rape of an 83-year-old Charlotte woman.

The prosecution built its case on microscopic hair analysis, which was often described as wrongly identifying individual persons. An FBI-trained Charlotte police analyst testified two hairs found at the crime scene likely came from Bridges.