Two men who faced the death penalty for a 1975 murder have walked free from prison when all the charges against them were dismissed after a witness said his testimony was 'all lies'.

Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, 57 and 60, were convicted of murdering Harry Franks, a businessman in Cleveland, Ohio - based largely on the testimony of a 12-year-old who said he saw the murder.

The two, along with Bridgeman's brother Ronnie, were given death sentences after Eddie Vernon testified in court.

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Free men: Wiley Bridgeman, left, and Ricky Jackson, right, were released Friday from Cuyahoga County Jail after 39 years behind bars. They were originally on death row, but had their sentences commuted to life following a Supreme Court decision in 1978 outlawing the death penalty as it then existed

Back: Bridgeman embraces his brother Ronnie, who was also convicted but let out of prison years before him

Third man: Ronnie Bridgeman, who has since changed his name to Kwame Ajamu, was also put on death row for the murders, but was released in 2003

Crime scene: This photograph shows the aftermath of the murder for which the Bridgeman brothers and Wiley were convicted

Victim: The three men were wrongly convicted of murdering Harry Franks, a businessman in Cleveland, Ohio

All three sentences were commuted to life in 1978 after a Supreme Court ruling, but the men were still saddled with decades behind bars. Ronnie Bridgeman was released in 2003 for separate reasons.

He was reunited with the other two inmates Friday when they walked free from Cuyahoga County Jail after prosecutors asked that the charges be dismissed.

The dramatic turnaround came after Vernon, now 52, recanted his testimony, saying that police officers coerced him into testifying and gave him details of the case.

Changing his account in 2013, he said: 'All the information was fed to me - I don't have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of the crime', Cleveland.com reported.

I'm out! Jackson walks smiling out of the jail after his sentence was quashed. He said he was on 'an emotional high' from being freed

In the initial court hearings, Vernon said he was on a bus with other schoolchildren when he heard gunshots near the a grocery store called Cut-Rite.

Other children on the bus have said Vernon would not have been able to see anything from his seat - and he has since admitted that was true.

He now claims detectives talked him into testifying, then said if he claimed he was lying his parents could be put in prison for perjury.

When he dismissed Jackson's case, Judge Richard McMonagle said, 'Life is filled with small victories, and this is a big one.'

'The English language doesn't even fit what I'm feeling,' Jackson, 57, said as he exited the building Friday. 'I'm on an emotional high.'

Thankful: Jackson looks to the sky in court after a judge revoked his sentence

Bridgeman, 60, said he never lost hope that he would be freed for good.

'You keep struggling, you keep trying,' he said.

Bridgeman embraced his brother Ronnie, who changed his name to Kwame Ajamu, as he walked out of the courthouse.

All he could say was that he is unsure what the future holds other than a celebratory fish dinner.

Ajamu told him: 'Stick with me. You'll be all right. I ain't never going to let you go.'

Jackson and his lawyers planned to celebrate Friday at a hotel. Asked where he was going to live, Jackson replied: 'It's ironic. For 39 years, I've had a place to stay. Now, you know, that's precarious.'

Ajamu said in an interview Thursday that the prospect of the three being together again is 'mind-boggling.' He spent his 18th birthday on death row and was in prison when his mother, a brother and a sister died.

Party time: Jackson said his first plan after almost 40 years' incarceration is to have a fish dinner

He said: 'The idea that my brother - both of those guys are my brothers - are getting out? I don't even care about me.'

The Bridgemans' death sentences were commuted to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed capital punishment in 1978. Jackson's sentence was commuted in 1977 because of a technical mistake.

Their cases were first re-evaluated after a 2011 article in the Cleveland Scene magazine highlighted Vernon's unreliable testimony.

Vernon broke down during a court hearing for Jackson on Tuesday as he described the threats by detectives and the burden of guilt he had carried for so long.

Jackson said he holds no animosity toward Vernon.

'It took a lot of courage to do what he did,' he said. 'He's been carrying a burden around for 39 years, like we have. But in the end, he came through, and I'm grateful for that.'

Joe Frolik, a spokesman for county prosecutor Tim McGinty, declined to comment on Thursday except to reiterate a statement McGinty made Tuesday: 'The state concedes the obvious.'