ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A US man who was cleared of murder after spending 45 years behind bars has said he’s “not a bitter man”.

Richard Phillips, 71, had his conviction erased last year but has now been exonerated and will not face a second trial.

Mr Phillips, from Detroit, smiled as he said the criminal justice system "works - it just didn't work fast enough".

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting. She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial.

"There's nothing I can say to bring back 40 years of his life," Ms Worthy said. "The system failed him. This is a true exoneration."

The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the 1972 trial told the state parole board that Phillips was not involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris.

Mr Phillips had been free on bond since December. He is likely to be eligible for more than 2 million US dollars under Michigan's wrongful conviction law.

No one in the US has served more years in prison before being exonerated than Phillips, said David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic.

"I've never carried bitterness around, so I'm not a bitter man," Mr Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison.

One of his goals is a reunion with two children who were aged two and four when he went to prison in 1972.

Despite publicity about his case, Mr Phillips said he has not heard from them and does not know their whereabouts.

"You have seen the worst and best of the criminal justice system," Judge Kevin Cox told him.

Mr Phillips has settled in a Detroit suburb and attends a church where he shares his story with others.