The temperature outside the jail was 5 degrees above freezing when Clarence Moses-EL took in his first breath of fresh air.

But after serving decades in prison for a brutal crime he says he did not commit, Moses-EL could breathe easier in the brisk air than he had in 28 years.

“This is the moment of my life right now,” Moses-EL said. “I feel great right now.”

Moses-EL, who was granted a new trial after serving more than half of a 48-year sentence, was released from custody Tuesday for the first time in decades. Arm-in-arm with his wife, Moses-EL — who has maintained his innocence since his arrest — walked out of the downtown Denver jail surrounded by his family.

Earlier in the day, Denver District Judge Kandace Gerdes set a $50,000 bail for Moses-EL, who was convicted of the 1987 sexual assault of a woman in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.

The woman had been beaten, dragged and raped, she told police.

There were six bone fractures to her face, and she lost vision in one eye.

On Dec. 14, Gerdes vacated Moses-EL’s convictions and granted him a new trial. Newly discovered evidence and evidence previously admitted in the case “is sufficient on salient points to allow a jury to probably return a verdict of acquittal in favor of the Defendant,” Gerdes wrote in her order.

Wearing a suit his attorneys had carried into the courthouse that morning, a smiling Moses-EL wrapped his arms around a grandson he had just met and one of his attorneys.

“I just want to get home with my family,” Moses-EL said. “I’m just so glad to be home.”

Moses-EL’s family was working on a special dinner order: pizza topped with chopped shrimp, steak and “lots of cheese.”

The Denver district attorney’s office on Tuesday asked to have a new trial date set “out of an abundance of caution,” although the office has not decided whether to retry Moses-EL. The DA’s office does not have a deadline to decide whether it will retry the case.

The trial was set to begin May 16. A motions hearing was scheduled for Feb. 25.

Moses-EL faces three felony counts, including sex assault and second-degree burglary.

In 1987, when police, her sister and a neighbor asked who had attacked her, the woman gave three possibilities: “LC, Earl, Darnell.” A couple of days later, however, she told police for the first time that Moses-EL, a neighbor, was her attacker.

His identity had come to her in a dream, she said.

A Denver jury convicted him of sexual assault, assault and burglary. Moses-EL was sentenced to 48 years in prison and would have become eligible for parole in 2017.

With help from fellow inmates, Moses-EL collected enough money to conduct DNA testing on the evidence. A judge approved the request, but police mistakenly destroyed the evidence before it could be analyzed.

In 1997, a judge ruled that the mistake was not grounds for a new trial.

But in 2013, Moses-EL received a letter at the Bent County Correctional Facility, where he was housed. The letter was from LC Jackson, a former neighbor of Moses-EL who was in prison for a rape conviction.

“I don’t really know what to say to you,” the letter read. “But let’s start by bringing what was done in the dark into the light. I have a lot on my heart. I don’t know who working (sic) on this, but have them come up and see me. It’s time.”

In a subsequent interview with defense investigators, Jackson admitted to having consensual sex with the victim on the night of the attack and hitting her, according to Moses-EL’s attorneys. The Denver district attorney’s office said Jackson later recanted his statement while talking to its investigators.

But during a hearing this summer, Jackson reaffirmed what he said in the letter, according to Gerdes’ order.

Jackson’s statements and blood tests indicating that the attacker had a different blood type than Moses-EL were some of the reasons Gerdes ordered a new trial. The Colorado Independent first reported Gerdes’ ruling.

“We’re hoping (officials in the district attorney’s office) look at the evidence and decide there is no point in retrying an innocent man,” said Eric Klein, one of Moses-EL’s attorneys.

Moses-EL did not answer questions about the pending decision from the DA’s office.

The 28 years leading up to his release were tedious, he said.

“I just kind of lost hope at one time,” Moses-EL said, but “spirituality and innocence” kept him going.

For now, Moses-EL said he was excited to meet all of his 12 grandchildren. He did not want any of them to see him in prison.

One of his grandsons wrapped his arm around Moses-EL’s left leg.

Asked what the first thing was he said to his grandfather, the little boy responded: “I’m glad you’re home.”

Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or @jsteffendp