HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A 49-year-old Texas man who sat on death row for nine years for the beating death of a 1-year-old boy was released from prison Wednesday.

Manuel Velez's conviction was tossed out by an appeals court because a state prison expert gave false testimony that he would be dangerous if let out on probation and because the defendant received deficient legal representation.


Velez accepted a plea deal in August, which meant he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, allowing him to be paroled. His lawyers said he's innocent of the death of his former girlfriend's son, but accepted the plea so he could be released.

The ACLU said Velez, who is intellectually disabled, was 1,000 miles away in Tennessee working on a construction project at the time of the boy's death. They blamed his lawyers for failing to discover the evidence that would clear their client.

"Manuel never belonged in prison, let alone on death row waiting to be executed. He is indisputably innocent," Brian Stull of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project said in a statement. "My joy for him and his family today is tinged with sadness for the years our criminal justice system stole from him, all because he was too poor to afford better counsel than the lawyer the state appointed to him.

"We should be ashamed of the errors that put Manuel on the brink of execution. He is far from the only innocent person to receive a death sentence," Stull said.