The Latest: Inmate freed after murder conviction overturned

HELENA, Mont. – The Latest on an order releasing two inmates whose deliberate homicide convictions were overturned (all times local):

4 p.m.

A Montana State Prison inmate was released from custody four days after a Lewis and Clark County judge vacated his conviction for deliberate homicide.

Freddie Joe Lawrence walked out of the prison in Deer Lodge Tuesday with members of the Montana Innocence Project, who had worked on his case.

District Judge Kathy Seeley overturned the convictions of Lawrence and co-defendant Paul Jenkins in the 1994 murder of Donna Meagher. Meagher was kidnapped from a family-owned casino in Montana City and killed west of Helena. DNA evidence linked convicted killer David Wayne Nelson to the case.

State records indicated Jenkins remained at the prison infirmary in Lewistown on Tuesday afternoon.

The attorney general’s office is still deciding whether to re-file charges against Lawrence and Jenkins while it also investigates Nelson as a suspect in Meagher’s death.

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2 p.m.

A Montana judge who overturned the deliberate homicide convictions of two Montana State Prison inmates has ordered them released from custody.

District Judge Kathy Seeley on Friday vacated the convictions of Freddie Joe Lawrence and Paul Jenkins in the 1994 murder of Donna Meagher, who was kidnapped from a family-owned casino in Montana City and killed west of Helena. DNA evidence linked a convicted killer to the case.

On Tuesday she ordered the men released with conditions. Lawrence has been at the state prison and will live in Missoula in housing arranged by the Montana Innocence Project. He will be subject to electronic monitoring.

Montana Innocence Project officials planned to pick up Lawrence at the prison on Tuesday afternoon.

Jenkins has been held at the prison infirmary in Lewistown. He is going to live with his daughter.