For the first time in nearly 40 years, Joseph Sledge woke up behind bars with a chance of becoming a free man. The 70-year-old needed one more win at an innocence hearing.

Three judges listened to closing statements Friday about how Sledge was wrongfully convicted in the 1976 stabbing deaths of a mother and her adult daughter. A few hours later, carrying his belongings in plastic bags, Sledge emerged from a North Carolina jail, saying he was looking forward to what most people consider the most mundane of activities: “Going home. Relaxing. Sleeping in a real bed. Probably get in a pool of water and swim for a little while.”

A special three-judge panel unanimously voted Sledge had proven he was innocent of the killings and ordered his release. But his freedom almost didn’t happen because evidence had been lost for years. His attorney, Christine Mumma, took the case in 2004 and considered closing the case in 2012. Then court clerks discovered a misplaced envelope of evidence while cleaning out a high shelf of a vault. The envelope contained hair, found on the victim and believed to be the attacker’s. Meghan Clement of Cellmark Forensics said none of the evidence collected from the scene — hair, DNA and fingerprints — belonged to Sledge.

After his release, Sledge was headed to Savannah, Georgia, to live with family. He told reporters he never doubted he’d be freed someday. “I had confidence in my own self. The self will and the patience,” he said before trailing off and searching for the right word. “Patience is the word.”

– NBC NEWS