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How golfing magazine helped free man wrongly imprisoned for 27 years

A man was freed from prison after serving 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

Since 1991, US man Valentino Dixon had been locked up in a maximum security prison in upstate New York, wrongly accused of the shooting death of Torriano Jackson.

It was a murder someone else later confessed to.

Mr Dixon’s love of art and golf is what eventually set him free, with a very unlikely TV network in the US taking an interest in his case before realising the evidence didn’t stack up.

“This is the greatest feeling in the world, it’s indescribable, and we’ve been waiting 27 years for this moment,” Mr Dixon said.

Valentino Dixon (pictured) was wrongly accused of murder
Valentino Dixon (pictured) was wrongly accused of murder. Source: 7News

“To be honest with you, sometimes I get angry and bitter, I have good and bad days now, some days I’m in a lot of pain looking up at the bars.”

From prison, Mr Dixon found his escape through art by drawing detailed images of golf courses, even though he’d never set foot on a green.

“The artwork takes me to another place,” Mr Dixon said.

“My dad used to take me fishing, drawing the golf course kind of reminded me of that.”

An American sports TV network, The Golf Channel, discovered the inmate artist and started investigating his case.

Valentino Dixon was freed after a long campaign
Valentino Dixon was freed after a campaign. Source: 7News

The Golf Channel exposed holes in the case and eventually aired an interview with the real killer.

Mr Dixon was exonerated and freed after years of lobbying.

“I always felt this day would come but I didn’t know when,” Mr Dixon said.