(upbeat music) Late May, Muskegon, Ray Gray checks out of state prison after a 48-year stay although he's always maintained they had the wrong man.

Days later, Gray and his wife Barbara talk about his release to attorney and podcast host, Mike Morse.

- If you would have lied 10, 20 years ago and told the parole board or somebody that you were involved, do you think you would have gotten out sooner?

- Yes in fact, I was offered a plea of 10 to 20, but I refused it and I often point out to them that my position of innocence has never been helpful.

It's a matter of principles and I realize that a lot of people would have submitted that you're crazy for holding on to that.

- [Man] Grey agreed to a no-contest plea, still not admitting guilt for that murder a half century ago.

- With this situation, they made some adjustments to get me out.

Everyone says making a deal with the devil or nothing, but it was a situation where I couldn't just say I did something I didn't do.

- [Mike] Right.

- [Man] We first told you Gray's story on One Detroit last fall, an acclaimed artist behind bars with friends on the outside who believed in his innocence.

- Art has helped a lot.

That was sort of like my salvation and her.

- [Man] Ray met Barbara in the late '70s.

She was an art teacher working with inmates back then.

- In the last year and a half, we've had one visit.

- [Man] In Muskegon, Ray kept painting through the pandemic.

(indistinct) - The COVID and the world with a mask.

- We have such respect for the first responders, many of whom lost their lives because of trying to help others.

So this is a nurse with the weight of the world on her shoulders and the vaccine was just starting to take hold when he did this.

- [Man] Well, tell me about when you painted that, what was going on in your life at that very moment?

- At the time I was painting that, the prison that I was in, it was 99% positive for COVID and it was the worst in the United States.

- [Man] At age 69, somehow Ray didn't catch it.

He's in search of art supplies.

- Yeah, you might not have ever seen this.

This is called Medium W. You can mix this with any oil paint and make it more soluble.

- Okay.

That store was amazing, in fact, every day has been and it's like a little touch of heaven.

- [Man] An incarcerated artist goes without, long handled brushes forbidden inside.

They could be weapons.

- [Ray] The easel is something that I always wanted.

At one time we could have them, but then they made that outlawed too because they were made out of wood.

- They usually had bunks and he had the top because it allowed him a little more room.

He would be painting late into the night when the rest of the prison would be mostly going to sleep or whatever.

So he keeps remarking, this is so much than top bunk.

- [Man] The Grays are on their third week together in person at an apartment in Livonia.

- She and I collaborate a lot.

Now that I'm actually here, I may be able to convince her to pick up a paintbrush again.

- I love watching him anyway.

It's just been a long time since I was able to.

He has a technique that's quite impressive.

Sky that he's working on his has certain beauty to it already.

- [Man] What's this gonna be Ray?

- Well this is the one where I'm coming home, and this is the vision of the city, but it's gonna be vague 'cause it always was vague, never clear and it always felt like I was on a different planet.

- [Man] Detroit, 1973, a lone witness said Gray was the killer and still claims that today though others testified Gray was somewhere else at the time.

Gray's advocate, Bill Proctor asked Ellis Stafford for help.

- There was no physical evidence.

One witness only, no, this can't be true.

This is what really got me, Mike.

The warden allowed two retired investigators to come see a man in prison.

Why did you allow us to do it?

Well, I found out later when I got there, they didn't believe Ray did it.

They believed he was innocent.

So we do what we always do (indistinct) interview thousands of witnesses, suspects, and victims in my career with the state police.

But we interview Ray for three and a half hours.

- In fact initially, I thought they were interrogating me for some other crime or something.

And they were extremely hard.

(indistinct) some hard questions.

But the truth can stand up to hard questions.

- And those techniques which we use to detect deception, we didn't see any.

- [Man] What year was this?

- About 2012.

- This was about 2012, yeah.

- [Man] Almost 10 years ago.

- And I was blown away.

I'm like, wow, but what could I do?

I didn't know what to do.

(indistinct) - [Voiceover] Enter your new four to nine digit password.

- [Man] So many new things, new surroundings, new friends, it's all changing.

What about Ray's work?

- [Man] Will it look different?

- Yeah.

- Yes, - It's gonna look different.

It's gonna definitely look different.

- [Man] More paint than water.

- You kind of evolve in periods, like Picasso had his blue periods and he had his cubist period and all this sort of thing.

So you go through these different transitions.

- [Man] Here, still in progress, going home, the first new piece created on the outside.

Ray Gray free, but not exonerated.

If he were, he'd be entitled to a very large payment for being wrongfully convicted.

- I'm not happy about this at all, but I'm learning from Ray Gray.

I need to stop grinding my teeth and pounding the table and help him enjoy his freedom while we consider what next steps to take to find true justice for Ray Gray.

- I'm able to fight better without chains on my legs and wrists.

I never had them here, chains here, they were always here, but now that then they're released and I'm out among the free people, I can fight better.

I can fight better here than there.