After 20 Years In Jail, Exonerated Man Gets Job Back With MLB's White Sox
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CHICAGO (CBSMiami) – A former Major League Baseball groundskeeper is back at his old job with the Chicago White Sox after spending more than 20 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit.
Last year, DNA evidence led prosecutors to drop the charges against Nevest Coleman.
While the ballpark the White Sox call home has gone through a few different names and major renovations since Coleman last worked there more than twenty years ago - he says the feeling is all too familiar.
"I felt comfortable here; everyone was like family to me," he said. "I'd wake up in the morning and be proud to come to work."
Coleman and another man had been serving time for the 1994 rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman.
The now 49-year-old says they wereconvicted after police beat confessions out of them, but recent DNA evidence showed neither man was guilty of the crime.
Coleman's friends and family reached out to the White Sox after his release last fall, and the team offered him his old job back.
"As long as I got my family my babies and my grandbabies, I am good," he said.
Coleman says he hopes to move up to full-time staff.
The White Sox home opener is Thursday, April 5.
