The man known to many simply as the “Shawshank fugitive” for his 56 years on the run from an infamous Ohio correctional facility was cleared for release by a parole board this week.

Frank Freshwaters, 79, escaped from the Ohio State Reformatory in 1959, after serving two years for parole violation in a manslaughter case. The reformatory was later immortalized as the filming location for the 1994 drama The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

Freshwaters, who lived most of his life under the false identity William Cox, was captured in May 2015 after spending most of his life as a fugitive. When US marshals arrested him in rural Brevard county, Florida, last year he became the object of the longest successful manhunt in the history of the marshal’s service. Upon capture he was returned to custody of the state of Ohio.

By the time he is released at a date to be decided in April, Freshwaters will likely have turned 80 – and have spent just under one year in prison since being apprehended. It isn’t clear exactly where Freshwaters will go, but his adult son Jim Cox has offered to take his father in at his West Virginia home. Cox was among those who attended and celebrated the board’s announcement Thursday.

The prosecutor’s office in Summit County, where the original offense took place, acknowledged the health and family concerns raised in support of Freshwaters’ release. But the state’s attorneys argued against parole, saying Freshwaters had changed his name to hide, never paid the restitution ordered for his victim’s family and continued to avoid accountability.

“I can’t dispute that he’s in ill health. I can’t dispute that he has a family in spite of all the things he’s done who love him dearly, and friends who love him. But this isn’t about that,” said Brad Gessner, the prosecutor’s chief counsel. “It’s about the justice that victims are entitled to.”

Richard Flynt, the son of the man whose death Freshwaters was charged for in 1959, told the parole board that he didn’t believe Freshwaters had paid for what happened.

During his 56 years on the lam, authorities said Freshwaters lived in several states and held down a variety of jobs, including some time as a truckdriver. In 1975, when he was living in West Virginia, Freshwaters was arrested but then state governor Arch Moore refused to extradite citing his “flawless, 16-year residency” in the state.

Although Freshwaters is commonly referenced in connection to the Shawshank Redemption film, and the Stephen King novella on which it is based, his history is quite unlike the fictional Andy Dufresne character, save for the escape. In the film, it takes Dufresne 19 years to tunnel out from the prison. Freshwaters escaped in just two, and did not manage to break free from the actual penitentiary but rather a lower security farm camp.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.