Minn. man freed after decade in prison for 1979 killing

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

A Minnesota man says freedom from prison is “wonderful” after serving a decade behind bars for a 1979 murder he says he did not commit.

Terry Olson, 57, was released from Faribault Correctional Facility on Tuesday. Olson received credit for time served, but did not receive a legal declaration that he did not commit murder, the Star Tribune reported.

Olson was convicted in 2007 in Wright County of killing Jeff Hammill, whose body was found on a road outside of Buffalo, Minn., in August 1979.

Olson’s attorneys and the Innocence Project of Minnesota fought for his release. He faced seven more years in prison and said he accepted the deal that freed him so he could help his mother, who lives in a Twin Cities nursing home.

“I’m ecstatic for Terry and his family,” said Julie Jonas, legal director of the Innocence Project of Minnesota, who estimated that about 3,000 hours of legal time were spent on the case. “It’s been one of the best weeks in my life.”

In an interview Friday in his lawyer’s Minneapolis office, Olson said that prison “was lonely” and his incarceration “was a nightmare.”