{
  "id": 6404713,
  "title": "I Wrote About His Wrongful Conviction. He Got Only 13 Years of Freedom Before Cancer Took His Life.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/i-wrote-about-his-wrongful-conviction-he-got-only-13-years-of-freedom",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-09-09T09:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ProPublica",
    "slug": "propublica",
    "url": "https://www.propublica.org/article/wrongful-conviction-cancer-death"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Fred Steese, who died in August of cancer at 62, was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1995 even though he was hundreds of miles away when the crime occurred. Despite being declared innocent by a judge in 2012, Las Vegas prosecutors insisted on retrying him and offered him an \"Alford plea,\" allowing him to assert his innocence while pleading guilty to avoid another trial. Steese served more than 20 years for a crime he did not commit, and died in hospice care after discovering a large mass on his liver and pancreas indicative of stage 4 cancer. He received a full and unconditional pardon from Nevada in 2017, which allowed the state to pay him $1.4 million for his wrongful conviction. Steese, who struggled with drug use and homelessness throughout his life, bought two vehicles and fulfilled his lifelong dream of being a long-haul trucker. His sister, Lynn Myers, reunited with him after his exoneration and cherishes the brief, joyful moments they shared together.",
  "summary": "The post I Wrote About His Wrongful Conviction. He Got Only 13 Years of Freedom Before Cancer Took His Life. appeared first on ProPublica .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}