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Convictions Overturned, Judge Orders Men Set Free

Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 | Updated 6:00 PM EST

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Philanthropist and investor Alberto Vilar was sentenced today to nine years in prison.

After 16 years behind bars, two men serving life sentences for the murder of a Fair Haven bodega owner, have been ordered set free -- according to the Associated Press and Hartford Courant.

A judge overturned the convictions of George Gould and Ronald Taylor, the two New Haven men charged in the 1993 murder.

Judge Stanley Fuger Jr. ordered their immediate release from prison -- calling them victims of "manifest injustice."

Judge Fuger said Gould and Taylor are "actually innocent" of the murder of bodega owner, Eugenio DeLeon Vega. The judge even threw out their arrest warrants. The ruling came after a star witness recanted. Investigators also found that DNA on the electrical cord used in the attack didn't belong to either of the two men convicted in the killing.

"George Gould and Ronald Taylor have been convicted and spent over 16 years in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Correction for a crime that, based upon all of the available evidence they did not commit, " said Judge Fuger.

The men haven't been released just yet. Prosecutors have filed a motion -- asking for more time to review the decision.