CNN
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A Florida man who served 30 years in prison for murder said he returned to prison Monday after spending the past two years trying to build a life outside of it.
Since his appeal led to his conditional release in 2021, Crosley Green, 65, has worked at a mechanical implant facility, attended church and spent time with his grandchildren. He even fell in love.
“I've been with this guy for two years,” his fiancée, Cathy Spikes, told CNN. “It makes me anxious that I can’t call you at 5 o’clock and say, ‘I’m home,’ and that I can’t say, ‘What do you want for dinner?’”
His return to prison comes about two weeks after U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton ruled he must surrender to authorities by April 17 to resume his life sentence.
Green surrendered to the Florida Department of Corrections Monday at 5 p.m., according to his attorney. He was accompanied by Spikes, his family, and attorneys Keith Harrison and Jeane Thomas, who have represented him pro bono for 15 years.
Green was allowed to leave prison on conditional release in 2021, about three years after his conviction was overturned in federal court in Orlando. The state of Florida appealed that decision and won last year, and Greene's conviction was reinstated. Dalton allowed Green to remain free while he exhausted all his legal options. Green's lawyers petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, but in late February the court declined to hear his case.
“I can’t be mad at anyone,” Green told CNN. “I don’t want anyone else to be angry with anyone. Anger will get you nowhere. It won't do (anything), but it will harm you. I'm happy. I'm not happy about going back. I have a future wife and I have friends who came here with me. “I have a family.”
Green was convicted in the 1989 shooting death of 21-year-old Charles Flynn. Green, who is black, was sentenced to death by an all-white jury but was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 due to technical problems with the sentencing phase of the trial.
In 2018, Judge Dalton ruled that prosecutors improperly concealed evidence that police once suspected someone else was the killer. But late last year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and reinstated Greene's conviction, saying the withheld evidence was not important to the case.
According to his legal team, Green's only options for getting out of prison are a pardon or parole.
“We believe he is a good candidate for parole,” Thomas said. “He demonstrated that he has been on supervised release for the past two years. “He was an incredibly successful man externally with his work, his church, and his family.”
Thomas pointed out that clemency is different from absolution. She said this is simply a mechanism for the state to determine whether someone has served enough time to be released.
Since his release, Green has worn an ankle monitor and has been a “model citizen,” according to Thomas.
“For 15 years, we have had 100% full confidence in our clients’ innocence,” Thomas said. “As lawyers, we must trust the justice system to deliver the right results. We will keep fighting. This is a serious injustice. And we believe we will get it right in the end.”
Despite the recent ruling, Green remains optimistic about the fight to prove his innocence. “For me, it’s just another part of what I’m going through to be free,” he said in a statement shared with CNN by his lawyers. “That’s it.”
He also attributed his patience to his faith in his commentary on CNN.
“If everyone could believe in himself with the Lord as I believe in myself, then you would be able to understand and say what I can say, without letting anything come between you and your faith.” he said