CINCINNATI (AP) — A man who spent nearly four decades in prison for a slaying and was freed after a witness said he lied as a boy is personally thanking those in Cincinnati who helped him.

Ricky Jackson called the Ohio Innocence Project his "knight in shining armor." Jackson conveyed his appreciation Tuesday at the project's University of Cincinnati home.

Jackson says he would have walked to Cincinnati from Cleveland if necessary to thank project members and others who he said "saved my life." The project took on Jackson's defense a few years ago.

A Cleveland judge recently dismissed the cases against 57-year-old Jackson and 60-year-old Wiley Bridgeman.

The witness recanted last year and said Cleveland police coerced him into testifying that the two men and another man killed a businessman in 1975.