A New York man who spent 19 years in prison after being accused as a teenager of stabbing his mother to death has been cleared of the charges.

Huwe (hyoo) Burton says he feels like a weight has been lifted off him after a Bronx judge threw out his conviction on Thursday. Burton was released on parole in 2009.

While he had his freedom, he says living with a wrongful conviction in the 1989 killing of his mother was “a lot to bear.”

Questioned at 16, Burton gave a confession he immediately recanted.

His Innocence Project lawyers and Bronx prosecutors say a reinvestigation found detectives used problematic interview techniques now understood to generate false confessions.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark says she doesn’t have confidence that Burton’s confession was true.

(AP)