UC Law Students Help 25-Year Prisoner Win Release

An Ohio man who spent 25 years in prison is about to be set free, thanks to the work of some law students at the University of Cincinnati, News 5's Emily Longnecker reports.

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"I was like screaming in the darkness in a cold, dark, dark place, ’Help, I'm innocent, I didn't do this,' and nobody would listen," Reece says.

In 1979, a jury convicted Reece, then just 20 years old, of the rape and attempted murder of his neighbor. There was no physical evidence of the crime. Reese says he had never met the woman.

Reece was sentenced to 15 to 75 years in prison. But he never gave up his claims of innocence.

"People told me if I merely had said that I did it, took responsibility, but that's not who I am," Reece says.

Enter Rita Reece.

Rita met Gary in prison through Christian ministry work, and they fell in love.

"We were penpals. He asked me to marry him. We got married in prison," Rita says.

Ayear ago, Rita wrote the Ohio Innocence Project -- a project to free wrongly incarcerated prisoners.

Two UC law students read the letter and knew they had a case.

"There was no physical evidence that linked this. It was the woman's word against his," says Alison Devillers

"Wholeheartedly, he's innocent," says Megan Maag.

After a year of research, the students wrote a 40-page brief to the state parole board asking for Reece's release.

It was granted. Reece will get out in February.

"I can never pay them back for what they've done,” Reece says, “but I look forward to paying them forward."