feeling guilty. they didn't. >> they didn't. >> now i have to figure out -- >> the prosecutor believing he had the right guy all along closed the case. but the judge? >> i mean it when i told the jurors when they wanted to find out who did this, when they wanted to solve this crime, that literally, if they believe there is another world they go to some day, look at bryan rein when you get there and ask him who killed him? that is the only way that we will ever know who killed bryan rein. hello, i'm craig melvin. this is dateline. >> i tell people it's the

miracle of facebook. >> one sentence, just one sentence. >> it's not often you get to be a hero. >> i got halfway through this and went oh my god. >> the murder happened in seconds. >> one was coming straight for me and jim with the gun leveled at us. i have never ran so fast in my life. >> the truth took decades. >> i said give me a lie detector test. >> i never believed it for one minute. >> did someone have it all long and were innocent men in prison for a murder they did not commit. a 22 year mystery until facebook helped old friends find each other and just as. >> did you ever imagine you would cause such a thing? >> not in 1 million years. >> they uncovered an almost unbelievable truth. >> none of us knew what

happened that night. this all made sense. >> somebody seen it. somebody new. >> they just had to get someone to believe them. >> oh my god we are winning., guide we are losing. >> this was it. >> hello, welcome to dateline. it started with a party. high school seniors celebrating the end of the school year, and new beginnings. before the night was through, one man would be dead in two others could not know within that they would be facing a decades long battle to prove their innocence. here is keith morrison with graduation night. >> in the summers outside detroit, michigan, the summer of 2009, a divorced mother of three named mary evans is

poking around in one of her favorite places, facebook. >> you can look up what everyone is up to. where they are at today. did they take the wrong path? >> no idea an innocent poking into her past with dredge up a shocking truth, long buried. >> i was stunned. it was unbelievable. >> a nightmare's were the terrors. >> i could've been killed that day. >> would bring together unlikely friends, old and new, and the fight to right a terrible wrong. >> a miracle happened. >> no. in 2009, it was an ordinary summer day. no son of providence anywhere. just mary reminiscing about long friends since gone away and you know how it is. a person wonders. not such an uncommon thing as people grow up as mary did in northeast detroit.

>> when i moved in it was a nice neighborhood. >> what changed? >> it definitely changed. started going really downhill. >> that particular summer day, mary was enomoto to remember the good times. good friends, and on facebook there was something called the northeast detroit alumni group. what did you do in this group on facebook? >> being in touch with long- lost friends, from the neighborhood. >> including a couple of brothers, old friends, who she remembered with a twinge did not turn out so well. tommy tommy highers and ray highers. went to prison for murder. mary followed the case in 1987 and remembers how she felt when they were found guilty. >> i wish act. i was shocked to hear that. >> did it sound like them to you? >> no.

>> she was thinking of them again. she wrote a line of missing them when she hears a certain song on the radio. then she sighed and pushed the send button. and? look out. people might have trouble believing that such a simple thing as posting on facebook could make whole worlds change. >> a lot of people ask, what did you do? what happened? i said, i just put one sentence, just one sentence. >> so she did. 500 miles away in the suburbs of washington, d.c., what were you doing on facebook? >> just wasting time like a lot of people do. >> kevin grew up in detroit but was an international trade attorney and d.c. he and mary didn't know each other and were not even facebook friends. both belong to that northeast detroit group which is why the very same summer day in 2009,

he just happened to see mary's post about those boys in prison for murder. >> that said something to the effect that they are in prison for life. every time i here miss you by the stones, i think of those guys. >> did you know those two? >> i did not know them. >> which should've been the end of it for something trip to wire deepen the creator of kevin's memory. that name. he heard it before. in connection with the murder case back in the late 80s. that memory lit up another one. clear as day. the indelible memory of a bizarre story a college roommate told him in 1993 or so. he could hardly believe it then. now, when he saw mary's post, could not be. with those old stories somehow connected? maybe mary could tell him. >> i sent back to her, they wouldn't be in prison for

killing old man bob? she got back and said, yes, they are in prison for killing old man bob. >> old man bob was robert karey, loan shark, drug dealer, murder at the picture of his east detroit home in the summer of 1987. kevin was already on the computer in 2009, so i pulled up the michigan department of corrections website and saw pictures of tommy and ray and confirm they were in prison doing life without parole for the murder of old man bob. it was then it hit him like a brick in the face. something about those pictures was very wrong. only one thing to do. kevin picked up the phone and called that old college roommate, man he had not seen for at least a decade. this man. john. >> he said it was about old man bob. i started freaking out. i said i'm not doing it.

>> how come? >> scared. i was scared. >> if he was scared now, just wait. mary's post and the connection of pulled up and kevin's brain just made john part of a team he didn't want to belong to. the next move was his. >> as a band of friends sets out on a journey to find justice, they need to find out what really happened the night old man bob was murdered. >> coming up. >> i got halfway through and went, oh my god. god. hey, flo. cool leg warmers. thanks. they are just for the bus ride to work. they are not part of the official uniform. no tunes today? no. my apartment was robbed last night. took my cable ready tv, vcr, portable cassette player. yup. all the latest tech. if only progressive had renter's insurance like their home insurance. then we could bundle our cars and get the same 24/7 protection. -i think we just invented that. -huh. this is the best day ever.

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keith morrison (voiceover): something serendipitous was in the wind in detroit as summer turned to fall in 2009. something serendipitous is in the wind in detroit. as summer turned to fall in 2009. a simple facebook post about old friends in prison for life was written by a native of detroit now living and d.c. got curious and looked up there pictures. >> i couldn't sleep at the beginning. >> wondering what to do? he called his old college roommate, john, the man who back in 1993 told him a story about the murder of old man bob. tell me why you called john? >> to see if he remembered telling me the story he told me

back all those years about the night that old man bob was killed. >> he did remember. >> he remembered it exactly on the phone as he did when he first told me. >> the story that john had been there when old man bob was killed. he had seen things and never talk to police. now? once kevin looked at the pictures of the highers brothers he understood that john's story could expose a terrible injustice if it was ever revealed, that is. kevin stewed about it a bit and talk to his wife and took her advice. >> we had no hesitation that we should do something with this. you are a lawyer and you know what to do with it. just go ahead and do it. it is the right thing to do. >> he boarded a plane to detroit on his own dime and john face down his fears, and

both met with the lawyer who represented those imprisoned brothers. >> we met at a restaurant in grosse pointe and talk to the lawyer. he didn't seem to believe me too much. i said give me a lie detector test. i will take the test and we can go from there. if you don't believe me, let's do this right now. a couple weeks later we took a lie detector test. >> the calligrapher detected that john hielscher was being truthful. he passed with flying colors. but then, nothing. neither kevin nor john heard anything more from the lawyer. >> i thought it got dropped. kind of, you know, good is not going to come back. that is it. >> that would've been the end most likely had it not been for her. on the other side of detroit although john and kevin couldn't have known it, was a private investigator who, to be told, we had just about given up on the case of the highers brothers.

the private i agreed to work the case for a fraction of her usual fee when the family begged her to find evidence of the boys' innocence. she tended to agree. in herlong search, she had been unable to find anyone or any facts that could challenge the story about old man bob's murder that was told at the trial which was this. >> bob was home and it was a friday night. he's getting a lot of phone calls. there's a guy sitting paying bags of week. people were calling and saying this is what i want. most come to the back door. >> and eyewitness sitting in his car. we built this animation to illustrate what he later told police. >> about 9:30 an omni pulled up in front of his house in two guys got out and walked up to the back door. he hears shots fire and shortly thereafter he sees guys going down the driveway. in the omni and drive off. >> it must've been them?

>> everybody assumes that people running down the driveway shot him. >> the dealer known as old man bob was dead and a single gunshot wound to the chest. detectives looked high and low for the getaway car. no luck. the cops canvassed the usual suspects and, bingo, the jailhouse informant named a possible shooter. a kid named tommy highers. what do you know? time a new old man bob and owed him money. used drugs. told friends he was going to visit bob that night. they prepared a line of but when they showed the pictures to the eyewitness, he didn't pick out tommy. he pointed to his brother ray. told police he was positive, 100% sure that ray was one of the men hopping in the car after the murder. both brothers were arrested and tried and convicted and sitting

in the courtroom, the on toward love them all their lives was devastated. >> i can't even imagine why they got life without parole even without parole? >> -- it was very hopeless. >> did you believe they would have done it? >> i never believed it for one minute. >> the family start by tommy and ray. they watch the time go in state prison. now in the mid-40s telling anybody and everybody, including us, that they did not kill old man bob. >> i walked with the faith. this is not the end. >> the brothers turned down plea deals determined to clear their names. they joined every prison program, took every class they could to prove themselves. >> we schooled ourselves. took any programs they had to offer. >> both of you? >> absolutely.

worked every day. >> to prove their innocence, they needed solid new evidence. by 2009, after 22 years, even their family had about given up. had you actually gotten to the stage where you thought, they'll be there for the rest of their lives? >> i did. >> so to the private i. stopped working the case or tried to. but tommy kept on calling. >> i would say you can't keep calling me. then i picked up the phone and it was tommy and i didn't have anything to do. i said fine. it was to get tommy off my back. i thought i would do a couple of things and be done. i can get tommy out of my life. >> she called tommy's lawyer who sent her a copy of the affidavit, the sworn story told by, guess who? the old college roommate of kevin's. john hielscher, the one he was

there at old man bob's when the murder took place. when the private i read that? >> i got halfway through and went, wholly [ bleep ]. oh my god. >> coming up. a close encounter with killers. >> it's the first thing that came to my head, he's going to shoot me. >> are they the same men spending life in prison for murder? murder?

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i tell people it's the miracle of facebook. heh. you know, without facebook, it wouldn't have happened. troi i tell people it's a miracle of facebook. without facebook, it would not have happened. >> the detroit private i had been baffled about the mystery surrounding the murder of old man bob. put tommy and ray highers in life. then out of the blue, just because some woman had a moment of nostalgia and posted a casual note on facebook, an levitated landed on her desk. from a man she had never heard of. john hielscher. >> it had to be real. it had to be true. >> a piece of heaven pending in your lap. >> john told would happen that often night and that detroit's summer of 1987. it was party night, he said. john and his classmates had just graduated from grosse pointe north high school. it's a separate for the captains of industry live,

several months and tax brackets across the city lines. after a few beers, the partiers decided to buy some marijuana from old man bob. >> you call up and say you're coming by. go to the back door. that's what we were going to do that night. >> john and friends popped in the car which was a white plymouth horizon, drove to make the buy. when they got there, they walked up the driveway to bob's back door just as the eyewitness later told the police. except for one detail. it was a big one. the eyewitness identified the brothers as the young man he saw in the driveway. but said john, it was not then. it was him. he and one of his grosse pointe buddies went up that driveway. >> we made it to the back door and when we knocked on the door and he opened it, i heard commotion behind me. we saw people jump over the fence, coming towards us.

one with the gun leveled at us. we saw the other people running toward bob, especially a guy with a shotgun. i remembered, i am dead. that was the first in the came to my head. he's going to shoot me. i froze. we froze. all he said is get the [ bleep ] out of your. we turn so fast and ran back to the car. we were running back and they heard the gunshot. i said get the hell out of here and he screeched the car and got out as quick as we could. >> after? they return to the graduation party. >> people were wondering, what happened? someone told what happened. i don't believe you. they didn't believe us. >> you were freaking out. i could've been killed that day. >> i had a gun pointed to my face. >> when he went home he said he

watch the news, read the paper and look for news but didn't see anything. never did find out what happened to old man bob. >> i didn't hear nothing. i never saw him actually die. i didn't really know. >> he said, he tried to forget it. join the army and served in the persian gulf and moved on with his life. he never told a soul apart from his girlfriend. then in 1993, six years after the incident, he told kevin zieleniewski. it was one telling detail in the story that kevin never forgot. the people who jumped over the fence? they were not white kids. they were black. you had no idea the two men went to prison? >> not until kevin called me in 2009. >> did you even know the highers brothers? >> total strangers. i said this is not right. it involved a different race. it was not two white people.

>> that information, more than 20 years after the murder, was what tommy and ray and their family at about lost hope they would ever find. >> when i got the whole story, it was like, somebody seen it. somebody new. >> this made sense. >> it was mistaken identity. >> it proves everything we said and believed for the last 25 years. >> giants store that could've disappeared forever if it had not been for mary's facebook post and the memory. they gave all those who loved him believe tommy and ray new determination. the family brought in a new legal team with one goal nailed on the evidence and get them out of prison. the attorneys jan and valerie. >> should've never been charged. >> a mistake happened and ended up with two men spending

potentially the rest of their lives in prison. >> if only they could find the other people in the car with john that night, and if they told the same story, well, maybe then they would have something. >> coming up. after more than two decades, the moment of truth. >> it was pins and needles. it was our life. life. this is a hot flash. this is a hot flash. but this is a not flash. for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause... ...veozah is the first and only prescription treatment that directly blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. with 100% hormone-free veozah... ...you can have fewer hot flashes... ...and more not flashes. veozah reduces the number and severity of hot flashes day and night. don't use veozah if you have cirrhosis, severe kidney problems, kidney failure,

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hi, i'm richard lui with a news update. forecasters saying hurricane beryl is expected to regain hurricane strength as it moved into the gulf of mexico. it's set to approach the south texas coast by sunday. surge warnings were issued for portions of that state. vikings cornerback died and it car accident saturday morning. maryland state police are investigating a fatal crash this out two others also killed. jackson was 24.

welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. after spending more than 20 years behind bars for a murder welcome back to dateline. i am craig melvin. after spending within 20 years behind bars for a murderer they said they did not commit, tommy and ray forgiven two valuable things. hope and the potential eyewitness. a stranger named john hielscher came forward to insist he saw the real killers. but could one man's clean be enough to overturn a conviction? for their team, it was time to go but the task of proving it. once again, here is keith morrison with graduation night. >> private i julianne cuneo and the others who joined her efforts for the highers brothers believe the newly discovered witness, john hielscher, was telling the

truth. now, if they could only find the four high school friends he claimed were with them . with him the night he and they took it trip to buy marijuana from a neighborhood drug dealer known as old man bob. a trip that ended in gunfire. first, bad news. julianne discovered the driver the car died. but, his family confirmed he drove a white plymouth horizon. the same type of car an eyewitness had seen fleeing the scene. that was important to make that connection? >> the linchpin is all these guys were in a white omni. on the horizon, the same car basically. >> one by one, they did find them. the kids now 40-some things who had been in the car, heard the very same things john hielscher told them. this man was riding in the front passenger seat. he confirmed the story. >> you could see it dawn on his face that two guys have been

sitting in jail for nearly 25 years. >> the woman who was a high school senior was dating one of the men confirm she saw too. although getting her to talk was no easy task. none was more reluctant than the young man walked up to the back door with john hielscher and flood in terror when a shot was fired. why wouldn't he talk about it? >> pretty much all the witnesses grew up in fairly wealthy, well- to-do families. seem to be an embarrassment that they had gone into east detroit to buy marijuana. >> for months, could only communicate through his sister. refused to tell what he knew. seem to go to great links to avoid their call. >> he wanted no part of it which i cannot understand. it's not often you get to be a hero. >> what could the lawyers to? they subpoenaed him. >> it had to be done. there were two innocent men in

prison. >> they wound up right here. the frank murphy hall of justice, spring 2012. the lawyers appointed to represent the long a person brothers tommy and ray, hoped to avoid this. they had allowed themselves to think the wayne county da office see the new evidence about the night old man bob was killed and see a mistake was made. and rectify it. but? >> we had a prosecutors office that was very uncooperative. in the face of overwhelming evidence of innocence. >> did that surprise you? >> no. it's the ability to blind yourself to everything except what you want to look at. >> all rise. >> that was a defense attorney's but if you. here they are in court to fight it out. it took a year of efforts and persuading other witnesses to testify about a moment so long

ago, it was no less difficult. knowing that, the family became a sort of cheering section for them. >> we filled up the room and wanted to show everybody over there to back them up. we wanted to be there for them. >> all crowded the court room and the judge would decide if the new evidence merited a new trial. >> all right. >> finally tommy and ray filed into court. the brothers who from day one insisted they were innocent and his family never stop believing in them, looking like what they were, survivors have a quarter century in prison. >> it was pins and needles. it was our life. if he did not believe what he was hearing, we were going back. >> this was a. >> this was it for sure. >> i got to the hearing and it was all out warfare. >> the defense began laying out

the strange tale from the start with mary evans and her facebook post. >> why have you come forward in this case? >> on the streets, i heard highers never did it. >> next the d.c. lawyer who happen to answer that post of mary's. >> would you state your name? >> kevin zieleniewski. >> he retold the story that john the old roommate told him in 1993. >> he made a comment to the effect, you wouldn't believe what happened that night. >> and so said kevin, he felt it was his duty to step in. >> why are you here today? >> two innocent people are in prison and i learned information that could help set them free. i felt compelled to bring that information forward. >> one by one, the witnesses. the 40 somethings who told the court about that night outside old man bob's house where they went to buy marijuana for the

graduation party. it was their friends and not the highers brothers who came running down the driveway. >> how did they look when they got in the car? >> terrified. >> why are you coming forward? >> two men in prison. >> even though reluctant witness, the when they had to subpoena confirmed all of it as did the man who through the graduation party that night. >> he was very forthcoming and said, sure, i remember that day. they were a wreck and they told me what happened. you don't forget something like that. >> the man whose comments to his roommate nearly two decades earlier kept the old story alive. what was it like to process of testifying at this hearing? >> i've been in combat and jumped out of planes and that

was the toughest thing i had to do.ner found out that old man bob was murdered told the story had never publicly discussed. complete with what he heard and softer walking up to old man bob's backdoor. >> i heard commotion coming from the alley behind the house. i saw four african american males hopping over the chain- link fence from the alley and they were running towards the house. >> what happened next? >> i saw a larger african american man with what appeared to be a shotgun, and then i saw another african american male with a handgun and told us to get the bleep out of their. >> what did you do that? >> proceeded to run as fast as i could. >> did you hear anything? >> as i was turning to run, i did hear a gunshot. >> are you scared? >> i am still scared. >> have you ever been afraid

like that? >> when i was in combat. >> why are you here? >> the wayne county assistant prosecutor made it perfectly clear. she did not believe all those new witnesses coming forward to tell the story. or what they said in their sworn statements, which she picked apart word by word. >> that is not correct. >> your affidavit is wrong? >> the assistant prosecutor went through the testimony of each witness and suggested, sometimes gently and sometimes not, that they were all lying. they concocted the whole story to help free tommy and ray highers. >> are they friends with you on facebook? >> i understand -- >> listen to my question. are they friends with you on facebook? yes or no? >> i would say no. >> but it was the assistant prosecutor who concocted a

story. >> the prosecution had nothing to contradict our theory. absolutely nothing. when you have nothing, you concoct something. what they concocted was a grand conspiracy theory. >> did that surprise you? >> to have people in connected to the defendants to come together and cook something up does not make sense. >> in the end, it was up to the judge to decide if the new evidence was cooked up as the prosecutor claimed, a compelling to give the brothers there for shot at freedom in 25 years. >> coming up. the judge rules. will the highers brothers get a second chance? >> we will fight and face whatever has to come. has to c discover the power of wegovy®. ♪ ♪ with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪

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[ cooing ] ♪ sweet child of mine ♪ pop! [ screams ] keith morrison (voiceover): by the summer of 2012, tommy and ray highers had been fighting to clear by the summer of 2012, tommy and ray highers agent fighting to clear their names for 25 years. now? the judge had heard all the new evidence. this was the moment. >> this is the core's decision on relief from judgment. >> with all the history, legalese, new evidence, witnesses. >> persecution was meticulous in pointing out the inconsistencies and differences between testimony and -- >> it took the judge two full hours to explain the basis for his decision.

the reasons, he said, he had no choice but to rule a particular way. >> my nerves were shaken. >> as tommy and ray, the court room full of family and friends and attorneys agonized. some felt almost ill. >> sitting through the ruling was killed me. oh my god, we are losing. oh my god we are winning. >> until the judge finally said the words. >> this evidence meets all the requirements for this court to grant the requested relief by the defendant. >> [ applause ] >> a weights fell off my shoulders. finally. thank you. thank you. >> everybody was hugging. >> it was a joyous scene. >> he we think that tommy and ray had just been declared innocent of the murder of old man bob. but that is not what happened.

not even two weeks later when the judge decided to release them on bond to await trial. and tommy and ray highers walked out of jail for the first time in almost 25 years. it felt like victory, looked like victory. >> it was like someone hit a grand slam at the ballpark. >> oh, my god. oh, man. >> my wonderful attorney. i am telling you now. she is the bomb. >> but, tommy and ray were merely out on bail, awaiting trial for murder. a trial the prosecution gave every indication it was especially determined to win and send them an back to where they came from.

state prison. what is it like to be sitting here talking about what has happened here? >> you can't even put it into words, the feeling going through me. >> we talked to them as they prepared for their biggest fight for exoneration and they hoped permanent freedom. >> we will fight and face whatever has to come. >> they told us their version of what happened the night old man bob was killed. >> we got involved in things we shouldn't have. drugs. >> that was the main thing. >> that night, the brothers did, indeed, go to bed's house, they said. saw the police were there and assumed debt >> we figured he was being rated. >> that is what we thought. being rated. we never stopped. there was so many police. >> it never occurred to us he was being murdered. >> we walked in and never walked out. >> they were 21 and 22 when

they went in but they said they're not the same man and that's a good thing. >> i am not ashamed of being in prison. prison made who i am today. prison made this man. my morals, my integrity. >> and away a positive experience but you wouldn't wish it on your worst honor dachshund enemy? >> right. >> you hold onto the light. >> after their release, they moved in with her aunt and wore electronic tethers to monitor their whereabouts mandated by the court. they were like rip van winkle, week into the real world, learning to use cell phones, getting their drivers license. >> first one i've ever had. >> and getting up and going to work. gray at the industrial heating and cooling company. tommy maintenance at an apartment complex.

at the same time, the wayne county prosecutors office was preparing its case against them to put them back in prison for life. preparing it as we sat talking. as the brothers told us, the ta has put an offer on the table. they can keep their freedom if they agreed to one condition. what are they offering? >> for us to plead guilty and we would get time served. >> would you? >> no. we stood on our innocence and screamed her from the top of our lungs for 25 years. >> for the people who got behind us, for us to do that would be like a slap in their face. it would tear my integrity right out of my body. we are innocent. nothing is going to change that. >> there will be people in the audience who will believe you did it. >> you can't convince everybody. >> you are kind of used to that

now. >> sure. >> we just want to convince 12. >> that would be the jurors sitting in judgment in the retrial for murder. tommy and ray highers going back to court, to see if free men they would remain. >> coming up. a courtroom game of chicken. who blinked first? >> it was disingenuous. >> that's a polite word. copd h. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler

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becaukeith morrisonts pain at t(voiceover): the halltion. of justice was waiting, again, for tommy, and ray highers, the very place they were the hall of justice was waiting again for tommy and ray highers. the very place they were sent away in the first place. >> i hate going in the courtroom. i hate going in the courthouse. i hate going in the parking lot to go to the courthouse. it is something we have to deal with. it will be head on. >> two weeks before the scheduled start of their trial, the wayne county prosecutors office was forging ahead, charging the brothers with the murder of old man bob. how nervous are you about this? >> of course you're going to be nervous. your lives are in other people's hands still. >> the defense attorneys had been attending predrawn hearings, sending motions back and forth all the while hoping the da would see it their way and simply drop the charges. >> i was confident it was a

game of chicken because they had no evidence. >> with each legal step in the march toward trial, they were disappointed. the da seemed perfectly clear they were very serious. then, just a few days after our interview with the brothers, september 2013, everyone assembled in the courtroom. the assistant prosecutor reynolds had something to say. >> at this time, based on consultation with the prosecutor, based on communications with this decedent's family and recognition of what 26 years can do to the tri-ability of a case, we moved to dismiss the case against the defendants at this point. >> that was it. case dismissed. no new trial. >> it's not often you can give someone their life back. we gave them their lives back. >> before they left the courtroom, the prosecutor

reserved the right to refile murder charges if new evidence ever surfaces. >> will do hang over your head? >> absolutely not. we moved on. we have moved on in life and we will continue. >> the wayne county prosecutor kym worthy who declined request for interview took a parting shot at the brothers. issued a statement saying,, quote, just as we did 26 years ago, we firmly believe in the evidence in this case. we have worked diligently to bring this case to trial. with the passage of time it's an unfortunate reality this case cannot be put back together, and we must dismiss it. sadly, in this case, justice was not done. really? so the people who free tommy and ray? >> it was disingenuous. >> disingenuous is such a

polite word. what does it mean? >> they were saving face. >> they state 25 years in prison for the crime they did not commit and the prosecutor's office is saying, yeah, right. kind of, we think they are guilty. >> in 2016, michigan lawmakers passed the wrongful imprisonment compensation act calling for the state to pay exonerated prisoners $50,000 for every year spent behind bars. the brothers sued the state for just over $1.2 million each. in october 2019, the michigan attorney general's office settled the suit, and agreed to pay the full amount. of course, in the days immediately following their release, nothing compared to the chance to celebrate with the people who helped make it happen. like mary, whose facebook post started everything. >> did you imagine you would

cause such a thing? >> no. not in 1 million years. it is hard to get my head around it. >> kevin who still shies away from taking credit. >> i happen to be a lawyer. it doesn't seem that extraordinary. >> john hielscher , who can finally put the past where it belongs, behind him. >> it's like i told them, i wish i could've done something earlier and you wouldn't of had to sit there. tommy gave me a hug and says, it's the way it was supposed to happen. it had to happen like this. >> they don't seem bitter at all. >> not when i met them. glad their home and out and free. >> free men who know it would not have happened without family and friends, the dream team of lawyers, investigator, and, of course, facebook. what would you like to say to those people who helped you along the way? >> thank you from the bottom of

my heart for believing, understanding, and taking the time that most people don't do. it's a dream come true for us because it's what we have been hoping for. >> somebody to help us. we want to move forward. it is the past. better days. >> so they wished. even life regained from injustice is not always fair. in november 2021, tommy highers died of a heart attack. his brother tried to go on but could not face life without tommy. in april 2024, he took his own. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. u for w hello. i am craig melvin, and this is dateline.