In 1994, Nevest Coleman was a man with a bright future. He was 25, had two children, attended church in the Chicago area, and worked as a groundskeeper at Comiskey Park, the home of the White Sox.

But that year, according to court documents, his life was upended. Mr. Coleman was falsely convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman and sent to prison. Last November, after he had spent 23 years behind bars, he was released based on DNA evidence that revealed he had not committed the crime, the documents say.

So on Monday, Mr. Coleman, now 49, did what any free man with an independent streak would do. With a home-packed lunch in hand, he returned to work at the same site he had left decades before.

“I like to work for what I have,” he told WGN-TV, speaking on his first day back after being rehired. “The past is in the past now.”