A man who served nearly three decades in prison for a triple killing in Philadelphia in what prosecutors called a �perfect storm� of injustice was freed after a judge threw out his conviction.

�Theophalis Wilson, you are free to go,� Judge Tracy Brandeis-Roman said Tuesday as extended family and friends who packed the courtroom cried and hugged each other, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

�This is a great day,� said Wilson, 48, who served 28 years in prison. �Now we�ve got to go back and get the other guys. There�s a lot of innocent people in jail.�

�It�s a beautiful day,� said his mother, Kim Wilson. �I just thank God it finally happened.�

Wilson was exonerated a month after his co-defendant, Christopher Williams, was cleared of the three 1989 killings. Wilson was a teenager when he was accused of participating in the slayings of Otis Reynolds and brothers Kevin and Gavin Anderson in north Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia district attorney�s office called the case a �perfect storm� of injustice, writing in a court filing that the case was marred by serious misconduct by the prosecution, an ineffective defense and a witness who supplied false testimony.

The witness who testified against Wilson and Williams recanted, saying he had provided false testimony in exchange for a deal to escape the death penalty and in hopes of eventual release. At a 2013 hearing, forensic specialists testified that physical evidence contradicted his earlier account of events.

Williams remains imprisoned on a life sentence in a fourth murder, a 1989 slaying in which he and another man were convicted but in which both have maintained their innocence.

Wilson is the 12th person exonerated by the prosecutor�s Conviction Integrity Unit. Unit chief Patricia Cummings said in court that it was time for Wilson to be allowed to �go home a free man, and that he go home with an apology.�

�No words can express what we put these people through. What we put Mr. Wilson through. What we put his family through,� she said.

(AP)