to get the justice they deserve and am heartened that the truth finally emerges. I hope they get compensation for the years stolen from them.

but what kind of “justice” takes 36 years?

... this really deserves more than "oops! Our bad! Now you're free. Off you go! Sorry."

They were arrested in 1983. In that time, I've finished high school, college, and grad school. I've held a career; gotten married (a couple of times) and started a family; paid into Social Security and a retirement account; built credit; attended funerals and weddings; celebrated holidays; and gone on the occasional vacation. I've kept current with technology and job skills. All while these three gentlemen rotted in a cell.

They were arrested as teenagers. They may have never had a bank account or driver's license. They may never have used an ATM or credit card, and the first time they'd have used a cell phone would have been right after they were released. They're coming out with no health insurance. They have 36 year holes in their resumes, their job skills aren't current, and they're close to the age when they should be planning for retirement and not entry level. And a lot of people will always be looking at them as the murderers they're not.

There's also this - they'll probably never be able to use Social Security. They haven't paid into the system.

As far as I'm concerned, they should be given the means to be independent for the rest of their lives.

And read up about the cop who arrested them. This isn't the first wrongful conviction he was involved with. One of the characters in the old NBC series "Homicide: Life on the Streets" was based on him. If he doesn't end up in a prison cell himself (where he belongs), he should at least lose his pension.

I expect them to get at least 5 million each, and they deserve it.

The officer responsible for this travesty was involved in a previous wrongful conviction. He was sued, but the judge threw it out. Such lawsuits sometimes succeed, but not always - even when police and/or prosecutors acted in a flagrantly unethical (and even illegal) manner.

Read up about the case of John Thompson in Louisiana to see how hard it is for exonerees to get justice through the courts.

I'm prescient.

Yeah right!!!!!

Probably because it is going to keep happening.

among the top results:
USA Today
NPR
CNN
WaPo

the BBC link is just the very top result.

The real killer has been free.

Who died a little later, probably from gang warfare.

If they had identified the real shooter, why did they keep these 3 guys in prison?

the Reagan era was outrageously punitive.

DA's are quite often politically ambitious and will fight like hell to keep those who are wrongly convicted in jail, no matter the actual evidence.

I saw one former DA who ran for a judgeship and won, he ran on his conviction of a rapist-murderer.
He called DNA testing that showed the DA had convicted the wrong guy "voodoo."

Some eyewitnesses fingered him, but this was passed over for reasons currently unknown.