Wrongfully convicted father freed after 27 years as handwritten note identifies real murderer

In 1998, Bryan Hooper Sr. was sent down for the murder of 77-year-old Ann Prazniak.

The pensioner was found dead in a cardboard box inside of her Minnesota apartment, with coroners ruling her death to have been caused by asphyxiation two weeks before her discovery.

During this time, neighbours told police that the property had been used as a 'drug haven', as well as for prostitution.

Since receiving his conviction from a local jury, Hooper has been remained behind bars, having been dealt three life sentences with the possibility of being released after 30 years.

This week, however, Hooper walked freely from the state's Stillwater Correctional Facility and into the arms of his kids, having been wrongly imprisoned almost three decades earlier.

In news made public by the Great North Innocence Project - which has striven to have Hooper freed for the last 27 years - the man was exonerated by Hennepin County District Court.

Simultaneously, the identity of Prazniak's real killer came to light, following the emergence of a handwritten note.

The message had been written by Chalaka Young, who served as a key witness in the 1998 trial, and who testified against Hooper.

During the court proceedings, she pinned the crime on her then-friend after her fingerprints were found on a piece of tape discovered inside of Prazniak's apartment, which matched that found on her body.

Appearing on the stand, Young denied murder, claiming Hooper had forced her to act as a lookout whilst they were inside the pensioner's home, during which she claimed he killed her.

Police found that Hooper had not killed Ann Prazniak (CBS)

The witness also insisted she'd been forced to help Hooper hide Prazniak's body on threat of being killed herself.

Though Hooper admitted to having been inside the woman's apartment, he denied ever having harmed her.

Following Young's testimony, however - which was incorrectly backed up by a further four witnesses, who were offered incentives at the time - he was jailed for the crime.

Young, meanwhile - who was tried for a unrelated crime around the same time - was handed a considerably lighter sentence for having worked closely with cops.

Whilst behind bars for eight years in a Georgia jail herself on the grounds of aggravated assault, she is said to have taken 'responsibility for two innocent lives that I have destroyed'.

Young has since confessed to the crime (CBS)

In a letter she wrote from within her cell, Young penned: "I am not okay any longer with [an] innocent man sitting in prison for a crime he did not commit. Soul [sick] purpose here is not to make any excuse but to take responsibility for two innocent lives that I have destroyed and…

"To make true amends for once in my life."

The same confession was also given to investigators.

Authorising Hooper's release this week, Mary Morarity, Hennepin County Attorney, explained in a statement: "We are convinced that Bryan Hooper did not commit that crime; he has been in prison for 27 years for something he didn’t do.

"We can never return what was taken from Mr. Hooper in 1998 and for that, I am sorry."

She added: "However, we can do the right thing today, and today we are joining the petition to vacate Mr. Hooper’s conviction."

Hooper is now a free man (CBS)

Great North Innocent Project spokesperson, Hayley Poxleitner told press that the free man now plans to reside close to his children in the Twin Cities.

His daughter, Bri'ana Hooper added: "Twenty-seven years of missed birthdays, missed milestones, holidays. 27 years of lost opportunity and time that we can’t get back. But today we don’t have to lose, we don’t."

Young has not yet been charged with Ann Prazniak's murder.