A man who has spent nearly half of his life on Tennessee’s death row left the Lois Deberry Special Needs Facility in Nashville today a freer man after posting bail.
“I feel pretty good.”
Paul House, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, drank a Pepsi and snacked on a 3-Muskateers bar as he rode out of the prison and home to Crossville. DNA evidence has cast doubt on a 1986 conviction for the rape and killing of Carolyn Muncey in East Tennessee.
Earlier this year, a federal court ordered the state to retry House. Bond was set at 100-thousand dollars. An anonymous donor put up bail this week so he could leave prison. Under conditions of his release he must stay at his mother’s house and will be monitored 24-hours a day.
House will be retried in a Union County court later this year, though prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM