Man exonerated on Philadelphia murder charge 17 years after being picked up for violating curfew

An exonerated man walked free on Monday night more than a decade after he was wrongfully convicted for a Philadelphia murder, officials said.

David Sparks, then 16, was initially picked up by police for violating a teen curfew on Sept. 4, 2006, the night 19-year-old Gary Hall was killed. Sparks was found guilty in Hall's shooting death two years later. The exonerated man, now in his 30s, was released from prison on Monday night.

"He walked free from the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Phoenix last night into the arms of his loving family and legal team," the Pennsylvania Innocence Project wrote in a social media post about Sparks. "David was just 16 years old at the time of his arrest and is excited to do the everyday things so many of us take for granted."