Wednesday was Ray Gray’s first day as a free man in nearly 50 years behind bars.

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A man who spent close to 50 years in prison for a crime is finally walking away free. Ray Gray says he never committed the crime.

DETROIT – Ray Gray has been in prison for nearly 50 years, one of Michigan’s longest serving inmates. For decades, Barbara Rinehart dreamed about the day her husband walks out of prison as a free man. He’s been filling canvases with wonder ever since, but a talented prison artist is just part of Gray’s story. But the cell remained locked tight, even after the intervention of Ellis Stafford, the deputy director of the Detroit Crime Commission who is convinced of Gray’s innocence. “He’ll fight to prove his innocence when he’s out if that’s what it takes but he won’t confess to something he didn’t do.”