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WEBVTT IMAGINE YOURSELF IN A PRISON CELL FACING A LIFE SENTENCE, NO CHANCE OF FREEDOM, THEN FINDING THE ERROR THAT PUT YOU THERE -- MICHAEL: IMAGINE YOURSELF IN A PRISON CELL, FACING A LIFE SENTENCE, NO CHANCE OF FREEDOM, THEN FINDING THE ERROR THAT PUT YOU THERE. CAROL WYFF NEWS 4 INVESTIGATES : LEARNED FOUR THOUSAND 970 PEOPLE ARE SERVING LIFE SENTENCES IN FEDERAL PRISONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. MICHAEL SOME OF THEM AT USP LEE, : A HIGH SECURITY PENITENTIARY JUST OVER THE NORTH CAROLINA-VIRGINIA NE.LI ERIC SCOTT OF ANDERSON WAS ONE CAROLERIC SCOTT OF ANDERSON WAS ONE OF THEM, UNTIL WEDNESDAY. : NOW, HE’S BACK HOME AFTER WINNING ON APPL.EA MICHAEL AND HIS JOURNEY TO THE : UPSTATE IS ONE YOU’LL SEE ONLY ON WYFF NEWS 4. A MOMENT WITH HIS SONS. IT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE IN WHEN JULY 2017, ERIC SCOTT GOT A LIFE SENTENCE FOR DRUG CONSPIRACY. >> NOW HE’S BACK WITH HIS FAMILY AND HIS KIDS, AND I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO HIM COMING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY, GETTING HIS FREEDOM BACK, BACKED HIS FAMILY. IT’S JUST A BEAUTIFUL MOMENT. MICHAEL BEST FRIEND KENNY LEE : WAS THERE HOURS BEFORE, WHEN SCOTT GOT OUT OF PRISON. A DREARY DAY, AT A PLACE RARELY FILLED WITH JOY LIT UP BY THE , REUNION. ERIC SCOTT SPENT 2006 TO 2011 IN PRISON. HE ADMITTED HIS PART IN A DRUG-SELLING CONSPIRACY. BUT FOUR YEARS LATER HE GOT ARRESTED AGAIN, CONVICTED ON DRUG CONSPIRACY AND THIS TIME, A LIFE SENTENCE. AND THE PROBLEM FOR THE FEDERAL PROSECUTORS. THE NEW CHARGES INVOLVED CRIMES SCOTT ALREADY ADMITTED. HIS LAWYERS CLAIMED WITNESSES IN THE NEW CASEWORK CONVICT LOOKING FOR REDUCED SENTENCES, WITH HOLES IN THEIR NEW CLAIMS AGAINST HIM. HE ARGUED DOUBLE JEOPARDY AND THE COURT OF APPEALS AGREED. SCOTT HAD ALREADY DONE HIS TIME. SO ALMOST EXACTLY FOUR YEARS AFTER HIS ARREST, FOUR YEARS HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SERVED HE WAS , GOING HOME. >> I DON’T MAKE NO SENSE, MAN IT’S FOUR YEARS OF MY KIDS’ LIFE, AND THIS WAS HARD ON MY FAMILY. THIS WAS HARD ON MY FAMILY, MAN. MICHAEL: THE BITTERNESS, OFTEN REPLACED BY RELIEF. >> LIKE A BIRD THAT’S FLYING IN THE AIR. THAT IS HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW. MICHAEL ESPECIALLY DURING THE : STOP FOR HIS FIRST MEAL AS A FREE MAN, A BIG MAC. BUT NO MOMENT MORE SATISFYING THAN THE FIRST ONES WITH HIS SONS. >> I KEPT MY F

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It’s impossible to know how long a life sentence will last.For Eric Scott, it was three years, 11 months and 27 days – the time between his arrest February 25, 2015, and the day he walked out of USP Lee, a federal penitentiary just north of the North Carolina-Virginia line, earlier this week.Double JeopardyThe Anderson man spent five years in prison, from 2006 to 2011. He admitted to being part of a drug-selling conspiracy.Four years after he was released, Scott was arrested on drug conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison.The problem for federal prosecutors was that the new charges covered those crimes to which Scott had already admitted and for which he had served prison time years earlier.“There was no physical evidence against Eric Scott,” said Scott’s attorney, Rauch Wise. “It was all testimony of witnesses who had cut a deal with the government in order to get a lesser sentence.”Wise and Scott were able to show the government’s case hinged on the crimes for which he’d already been punished.“When this appeal started,” Wise said, “Eric was the one that found the closing argument by the government that placed the emphasis of any conviction on what he pled guilty to.”The team argued double jeopardy, and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed Scott had already done his time.“The government took the position the conspiracy he was on trial for was a different conspiracy than the one he had been convicted for,” said Andy Moorman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “It’s the government’s position the Fourth’s Circuit’s decision was not based on the veracity of the witnesses or the quality of the evidence.”“Hopefully, this case is going to make it easier for the next person to make these defenses and have a local judge agree with them,” Wise said.The long trip home“This is crazy, man!”Eric Scott couldn’t hold back, clapping as he walked into a waiting area at USP Lee where Wise was standing with Kenny Lee, Scott’s best friend since the sixth grade and Shermeka Scott, Scott’s cousin.After a round of hugs, the group collected Scott’s belongings and hit the road back to the Upstate of South Carolina.“It don’t make no sense, man,” Scott said a few minutes into the more than 200-mile drive. “It’s four years of my kids’ life, and this was hard on my family. This was hard on my family, man.“My daughter had her daddy-daughter dance the other day, and when I talked to her on the phone, she was like, ‘Dad, my mom had to take me to the dance because you wasn’t here.’ That hurt me, man. That hurt me because they took me away from my family for four years for no reason.”“They’re more concerned with the conviction than the crime,” Wise replied.“That’s what bothers me about the whole situation,” Scott said. “They’re more concerned with the conviction than the truth. It’s bad when it comes down to that.“And when you were guilty, you pled guilty and served your time,” Wise said.“I served my time, and I’ve done productive work,” Scott replied.The conversation over frustration shifted to one over relief.“Like a bird that’s flying in the air,” Scott said. “That’s how I feel right now.”In a light moment, Scott even asked Wise, who was driving, to slow down on the wet Virginia mountain roads.“You know, I’m scared! This is my first day out, baby, I ain’t trying to have no wreck.”A few minutes later, Scott decided the traveling party needed to stop for burgers.“I’d mess with McDonald’s,” Scott said with an excited look on his face. “I hadn’t had a Big Mac in so long.”During his first meal as a free man, Scott spoke with his preacher over the phone.“I’m going to be at church Sunday morning,” Scott said during the call. “All my kids will be at the church Sunday morning.”The group walked to the convenience store attached to the fast food restaurant with two things on the shopping list: candy and lottery tickets.The scratch-offs didn’t yield winnings, but Scott didn’t mind. His victory was bigger than the $2 tickets.“We got to get back to Anderson,” Scott said. “We got to see the kids.”Finally homeIt was a hug that probably seemed impossible four years earlier.Cire and Nahzir grabbed their dad and weren’t in any hurry to let go.“Now he’s back with his family and his kids, and I’m looking forward to him coming back to the community,” Scott’s friend Kenny Lee said. “Getting his freedom back, back to his family, it’s just a beautiful moment.”“I kept my faith in God,” Scott said with both boys still hanging on to him. “I believed it was going to come through because I knew I was innocent. I got on my knees every night and prayed that I could see my kids again. I don’t want to see my kids go through the same thing I went through.”Scott said he plans to take a vacation to California. He wants to watch Lebron James and the Lakers play.“Then I’m going to come back and get it together,” he said. “I don’t mind taking baby steps. I’m going to pray for wisdom that God leads me the right direction.”What he left behind in Virginia“Some people in jail deserve to be there,” Scott said on the ride back to South Carolina Wednesday. “There are some people who don’t deserve to be there.”According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there were 1,350 inmates at USP Lee on January 26, less than a month before Scott’s release.Three out of five of the inmates were black, one out of three were incarcerated on drug charges and one in nine was serving a life sentence at that time.The agency reported there were 4,709 people serving life sentences across the country. It accounts for about 3 percent of the federal prison population.“I’ve been in USP,” Scott said. “If you get a life sentence, man, you got to go to the USP. I saw people get killed. I saw plenty of people get stabbed every week. I’ve been in a dangerous environment for no reason.”He knows what it’s like on the inside. He knows he doesn’t want to go back.