Innocent Man Walks After 12 Years in Prison

He had been wrongly convicted of murder of an elderly woman

Sometimes in recent months, Michael Wayne Hash would head out to his parents' garage, where they'd moved most of the paperwork from his case into four giant plastic tubs and three chest-high filing cabinets, and he would read through the files his mother had meticulously organized: sentencing orders, affidavits, transcripts, opinions.

"I would love to see these gone," he said earlier this summer. "But I don't think we'll ever stop talking about [the slaying] till it's actually solved."

On Monday, Hash walked out of the Culpeper County courthouse with the charges against him dismissed, 12 years after being wrongly convicted of murder. Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh, who had been brought in to reassess a case that has raised widespread concerns about deceit and misconduct, asked the judge to dismiss all charges and lift any legal constraints against him.