I want to tell you a story about two men. One sits in prison for a double murder that new DNA suggests he didn't commit. The other guy bragged on tape decades ago about killing the black couple, who he called "n-------." He is as free as you and I.

How did this happen? It's a long and complex story, which I detail in the link at the end of this thread, but down in its essence, the story as follows: in 1985, a white man walked into a black church and killed a deacon and the deacon's wife. This happened during Bible study.

The couple lay dead in the vestibule of the church, near Brunswick, Ga., which you might've heard of because of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Near the bodies, cops found a pair of glasses with two Caucasian hairs stuck in the hinge. These hairs will be come important shortly.

In 1986, when Erik Sparre, the free man, confessed on tape, he was making a threat to kill his ex-wife's entire family, like he'd done to "the two n------ in that church." The ex-wife said he hated black people, said he had a pair of beat-up glasses.

A cop showed her three pairs and asked if any of them were like Sparre's. She picked this pair -- the pair from the church.

How did Sparre get out of this? He had an alibi. He was on the clock at Winn-Dixie in Brunswick when the murders happened. That was according to a person who claimed to be his boss in a phone call to a GBI agent. Fast forward to 1998.

Cold case. Not good for the sheriff. Not good for anybody. The sheriff hires a new detective to work the case on a one-year contract. One year to work a case that confounded other detectives for 13 years. Within a week, Dennis Perry is the main suspect.

Perry's ex-girlfriend's mom tells a story about him to a detective: Perry asked for money; deacon laughed, said no. Perry said he was going to kill the deacon for that laugh. Did it matter that *friends* called the ex's mom Crazy Jane?

Or that people close to her regarded her as someone who'd lost touch with reality? Did it matter, even, that Sparre's second ex-wife was now saying Sparre, who she called a "white supremacist," suggested to her that he did the murders?

None of this mattered. The jury didn't know any of it. They convicted Dennis Perry. Sparre stayed free. He's still free as you read this -- even though there's been a stunning development. The DNA test that attorneys say cleared Perry tied Sparre to the crime scene.

The @GaInnocence did the test after I discovered that Sparre's alibi witness was a man who, in fact, did not exist. After the test, every criminal law expert I talked to said Perry must immediately go free. DA Jackie Johnson, who you also know, didn't move to release Perry.

Six weeks after learning of the DNA, Johnson asked the GBI to reopen the investigation into the murders. The Lord knows how long the investigation will take. So Perry sits in prison, and Sparre is free as you and I. https://www.ajc.com/alibi-story/