innocence. sometimes i would write, knowing i m not going to get a response back. finally somebody responded back. reporter: the innocence project, a nonprofit dedicated to exonerating the wrongly convicted, joined burton s legal team in 2016. over the course of their investigation, they found proof of his innocence, including an alternate suspect who died before the trial, and evidence that the detectives who questioned burton had also obtained false statements in a previous case. nbc news reached out to the new york police department for comment but did not receive a response. the evidence was enough to reverse burton s conviction. i want to give apologies, mr. burton, on behalf of a system that failed. reporter: the bronx supreme court wiped his records clean. what did that mean for you? that life was just starting. life was just starting. so it took 30 years to get it right, but it s just starting.