(CHICAGO) After more than twenty years behind bars, prosecutors have dropped murder charges against Chicagoan Edward Bolden.

In 1994 Bolden was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Irving Clayton and Derrick Frazier, in what authorities say, was a drug deal gone bad.  Their bodies were found in a burning car near 66th and Minerva.

However, a Cook County Judge ruled that Bolden was deprived of his constitutional rights – with only a sole witness called to the stand and an ineffective assistant public defender.

Bolden’s lawyer, Ronald Safer, says prosecutors recently interviewed a few witnesses who never testified.  “They all should have been interviewed.  These witnesses should have testified twenty two years ago, and had they, Eddie would not have spent any time in jail,” said Safer.

Outside of the prison walls Bolden told reporters, “They said I had life.  I didn’t say I had life and I worked on coming home.”