An 83-year-old man has been acquitted of his wife's murder - after spending 45 years in prison.

In 1974, Isaiah Andrews' wife, Regina, was reportedly found in Forest Park in Cleveland after suffering 11 stab wounds at the Colonia House Hotel.

On Wednesday, after 45 years in prison, a Cleveland jury spent less than 90 minutes deliberating over the case, before Andrews was finally acquitted in his second aggravated murder trial.

Following the verdict, the 83-year-old said: "I've become free."

According to the Ohio Innocence Project, who represented Andrews, "Isaiah's time served stands as the second-longest known wrongful incarceration in U.S. history."

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Andrews added that the new ruling "relieved all the weight off" him.

After a judge ruled that prosecutors in the original trial during the 1970s failed to inform the jury that police had interviewed another suspect in the murder, Andrews was granted a second trial and released on bail last year.

As reported by Cleveland.com, the other suspect - who passed away in 2011 - had an alibi, but the interview was never reviewed and detectives failed to interview him again. There was no physical evidence linking Andrews to his wife's death.

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Attorneys from the Ohio Innocence Project had originally hoped that the Andrews' charge would be dropped by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley. However, O'Malley instead offered Andrews a plea bargain that would allow him to stay out of prison if he pleaded guilty to killing Regina.

Per CBS News, In response, Andrews rejected the offer, and told visiting Judge Tim McGinty that he wanted "justice" for his wife.

During this month's second trial, defense attorney Marcus Sidoti told the jury: "They let the murderer go because they messed up on the time of death."

Speaking to CBS News following the jury's acquittal, representatives from Ohio Innocence Project said: "This was the right result today, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get actual justice. He should have never been convicted in the first place and he certainly never should have been retried."

Andrews told reporters following his. retrial: "I used to say to myself, 'People know my character. They know I would never do anything to a female, except help her.' I'm saying to myself, 'How could they read me so wrong?' But they finally read me right."

Featured image credit: Pexels / Sora Shimazaki

Man, 83, acquitted of wife's murder after spending 45 years in prison