Bruce Lisker: A life in photos

Bob and Dorka Lisker had everything. He was a successful Hollywood attorney. She was a film cutter for Hollywood movies.

Unable to have a child of their own, one day Bob came home and presented Dorka with a baby boy that one of his clients had put up for adoption. They named their son, Bruce.

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Bruce's doting parents spoiled their young son.

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Bruce Lisker and his Little League teammates pose with their trophies. Years later, Bruce's trophy would be a murder weapon used to kill his mother, Dorka.

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There are few pictures of Bruce Lisker in his teenage years. He was only 11 when he began a long and destructive romance with drugs. As his drug use escalated, so did the fights with his mother.

"By the time I was about 15, 16, I was smoking pot or drinking every day," he tells "48 Hours Mystery."

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Bruce Lisker and his friend, Mike Ryan, shown, became roommates once Bruce dropped out of high school and his parents rented him an apartment near the family home. Bruce says he believes that it was Mike Ryan who murdered his mother.

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Detectives discover a brutal crime scene inside this quaint home in Sherman Oaks in the City of Los Angeles. Dorka Lisker, 66, had been brutally assaulted. She died at the hospital before anyone could interview her.

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Dorka Lisker, 66, was beaten with her son, Bruce's, baseball trophy.

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Dorka Lisker was also stabbed in the back with both of these steak knives.

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Inside the front door to the Lisker home is the bloody rug where Dorka Lisker's body lay. That night, Det. Andrew Monsue and Bob Lisker threw away the bloody rug, crucial evidence that was lost forever.

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LAPD Det. Andrew Monsue's reflection is captured in this evidence photo of the living room window. Prosecutors used the photo to discredit Bruce Lisker's story that he discovered his mother lying injured when he peered through windows in the rear of the house.

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At trial, prosecutors implied this bloody shoe print on the bathroom floor matched Bruce Lisker's. Years later Sgt. Jim Gavin of the LAPD had it analyzed and demonstrated it did not match - indicating another person was at the scene of the crime.

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At age 17, Bruce Lisker was sentenced to 16 years to life for his mother's murder. The years passed, the teenager became a man, and all of his appeals failed. But, he says, proving his innocence consumed all of his time.

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In California's overcrowded prisons, there are not enough cells for inmates. Bruce Lisker was assigned this bunk, where he displayed his www.freebruce.org towel and a picture of Marilyn Monroe by his pillow.

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Crowded with inmates, there are no trees on the "yard" at Mule Creek State Prison, Bruce's long-time home.

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On Aug. 13 2009, Bruce Lisker walked out of Mule Creek State Prison a free man for the first time in 26 years. His conviction was overturned based on the finding that most of the evidence used to implicate him in the crime had been seriously undermined or proved false.

He faced the press with Private Investigator Paul Ingels, who worked tirelessly for 10 years to win Bruce's release from prison.

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"It was really pretty cool, you know," an emotional Paul Ingels, right, tells "48 Hours." "[Bruce] was standing under a tree, and he's staring at this tree and I looked over at him and I said, 'Bruce, you look really weird looking at that tree.' He goes, 'I haven't seen a tree in 26 years.'"

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Bruce Lisker speaks during a news conference after being released from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009. Lisker was released a week after a judge overturned his murder conviction, citing false trial evidence and sloppy defense work. Lisker, 44, had been behind bars since his mother, Dorka, was beaten and stabbed at her home in March 1983. He was convicted two years later and got 16 years to life.

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Bruce Lisker departs the prison after being released from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009.

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Bruce Lisker waves after leaving Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif., in Ione, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009.

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Bruce Lisker's freedom was at stake again, as prosecutors sought to reopen the case and have him returned to prison. A judge rejected that motion.

Will Lisker return to prison on a technicality?
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Bruce Lisker and fiancee, Kara. They are getting married on Aug. 13, 2011, the second anniversary of his release.

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Bruce Lisker and his fiancee on a romantic getaway to Pasadena.

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Bruce Lisker and Kara on a boat ride off of Point Fermin, Calif. Says Lisker, "This is where the Neptune Society distributed both my murdered mother's and my late father's ashes after they were cremated. So it was an emotional pilgrimage for me, and Kara came along for support."

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Bruce Lisker and his fiancee, Kara, sport big smiles and "I voted" stickers after California's gubernatorial election on Nov. 2, 2010. "We'd just voted, each of us for the first time! She, a new citizen, and me, well, a new citizen!" he says.

Read more: The Lisker Chronicles
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