A man who has spent nearly half his life in prison walked free Wednesday after the star witness in his murder case admitted that he himself did it. John Miller, 44, has been behind bars for 21 years. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1997 for the October 1996 murder of Anthony Mullen during a robbery attempt outside the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. David Williams identified Miller as the killer, but recanted his statement even before Miller’s preliminary hearing, and “has been confessing to Mullen’s murder for more than a decade,” the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office wrote in a motion filed Monday that declined to retry Miller. The office has not said whether it will now charge Williams in the Mullen murder. “I’m very happy and excited that after 21 years I’m finally being heard and that my innocence has reached the surface,” said Miller. “I’m going home to my family. I’m overwhelmed, excited, and happy.”
