Racist Suspect AG and Court Order Black Man Back to Prison 2 yrs After his Murder Conviction Set Aside. Gov Witnesses Recanted Confession Testimony and Said They Were Coerced Into Lying by Prosecutors

From [HERE] When Crosley Green was released from a Florida prison in 2021 after serving 33 years for a murder he said he did not commit, he and family members who met him outside the penitentiary walls believed his long nightmare was over. As loved ones hugged Green and cried tears of joy, his lawyers said they were confident evidence discovered after his conviction would exonerate him.

Green, however, has been ordered back to prison next week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected his claim that his guilty verdict was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights. The appellate court described the evidence uncovered post-trial as "strictly circumscribed" and concluded it would not have changed the outcome of his 1990 conviction by an all-white Brevard County, Florida, jury.

"The most important thing is an innocent man has served 33 years in prison and is going back in for a crime he didn't commit," one of Green's attorneys, Jeane Thomas, told ABC News.

Thomas said three key prosecution witnesses, including Green's sister, recanted testimony that Green, who is Black, confessed to fatally shooting Charles "Chip" Flynn, a 21-year-old white man during a 1989 carjacking, stating they were all coerced by prosecutors and investigators into lying on the witness stand.

Additionally, Green's legal team said the prosecution never turned over to the defense evidence that the two sheriff's deputies who initially responded to the shooting did not believe the sole eyewitness, Flynn's ex-girlfriend, a white teenager, who claimed a "Black guy" committed the slaying.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in late February not to review Green's case, exhausting his final appeal.

Green, 65, is scheduled to report to the Florida Department of Corrections by Monday to resume his life sentence. But, he said he has not given up and hopes he will walk free again.

"It's bad, but it ain't enough to affect me any kind of way. It can't make me feel down, out and stuff like that because I came too far," Green said in a video statement released to ABC News by his lawyers. "There could be a lot more I'd like to do. But in reality, one day I'm going to get to do it. Right now, I'm going to abide by the rules about what was set forth and be returned back to prison."

'He did not kill that boy'

The 11th Circuit decision overturned a ruling made in 2018 by U.S. District Court Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. of the Middle District of Florida. Dalton set aside Green's conviction, granted him a conditional release citing concerns over the COVID pandemic and sent the case back to the state to free Green or hold a new trial.

Dalton, according to his ruling, found that now retired Assistant State Attorney Chris White violated the so-called Brady rule constitutionally requiring prosecutors to disclose material evidence favorable to a defendant. He concluded White should have turned over to the defense notes of conversations with the first two sheriff's deputies who responded to the Flynn shooting and told him they suspected Flynn might have been shot by his ex-girlfriend -- the star prosecution witness.

"It is difficult to conceive of information more material to the defense... than the fact that the initial responding officers evaluated the totality of evidence as suggesting that the investigation should be directed toward someone other than (Green)," Dalton's ruling reads.

Diane Clark, a retired Brevard County Sheriff's Office major, was one of the two deputies who responded to the Flynn shooting. Clark told ABC News in a telephone interview this week she was "devastated" when she heard Green was ordered back to prison.

"He doesn't belong there. He spent too many years there to start with. And to this day, I'll say he did not kill that boy," Clark said. "When I got the news that he was going back to prison, I just felt terrible about it."

Regardless of the new evidence, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody appealed Dalton's ruling, leading to the 11th Circuit decision.

"The Florida Attorney General's Office is charged by statute to represent the State of Florida in upholding judgments and sentences sought by the State Attorney in each circuit and imposed by trial courts when they are appealed," a spokesperson for Moody said in a statement to ABC News.

In the two years Green, the father of three sons, has been out of prison, he has lived a model life, said Thomas, who has worked on Green's case for the past 15 years. As part of his conditional release, Green is required to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet and report regularly to a probation officer.

He's allowed to leave his house only to go to his job as a skilled machinist at a manufacturing company and services at his church on Sundays.

Thomas, a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm Crowell & Moring, said Green has also gotten the chance to know his many grandchildren, nieces and nephews. [MORE]