Doane Thomas News Today

Conviction. I knew they were innocent. And the question was do we have enough . Reporter youve got several witnesses saying their testimony was coerced. Can they all be lying . If i have to die in this situation, let it be said that i would die trying to prove it that i was an innocent man. Never that i gave up. Never. Heres craig melvin with the long road to freedom. Reporter tulsa, oklahoma. Look at a list of top places to live and youll often find it. A city of promise, of a new kind of energ...

I knew they were innocent. And the question was do we have enough . Reporter youve got several witnesses saying their testimony was coerced. Can they all be lying . If i have to die in this situation, let it be said that i would die trying to prove it that i was an innocent man. Never that i gave up. Never. Heres craig melvin with the long road to Freedom Reporter tulsa oklahoma. Look at a list of top places to live and youll often find it. A city of promise, of a new kind of energy as its motto...

>> when you heard the judge say, "corey atchison, youre a free man." whatd you think? >> its no words to explain, like im just so happy. im just ready for him to come home and be there for me and my baby. >> "dateline" repeatedly asked the tulsa police department to respond to the allegations it threatened teenage witnesses in both malcolms and coreys cases. we also asked the das and the mayors office for interviews. they all declined. but we did speak to tim harris, tulsas former district attor...

Testimony he goes, you know what, i cant do this. what i just testified to isnt the truth. i was told to say it by these detectives. i didnt see corey do anything. >> next, norwood tracked down the prosecutions star witness, doane thomas. and he told him he had lied, too, when he identified corey as the killer. >> doane thomas claim is that the police pressured him to say it, and then the prosecutor tim harris got him through the trial getting him to say it. >> then there was coreys friend whod ...

But six months after lanes death, a 16-year-old named doane thomas told police he saw the shooter. it was corey. police arrested corey and charged him with first-degree murder. >> i was taken to the homicide division. and the detective was, like, youre going to tell us you did this. and im like, man, i aint did nothing. >> at trial, doane thomas became the prosecutions star witness. prosecutions star witness. and prosecutors had more evidence -- they played an interrogation video of coreys frien...