Ex-death row inmate released on parole in Texas

By Michael Graczyk
Published October 8, 2014 11:12pm ET
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Ex-death row inmate released on parole in Texas
Former Texas death row inmate Manuel Velez, 49, is greeted by his attorneys Jaclyn Brown, of Denver, right, and Brian Stull, of Durham, N.C. as he leaves the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. An appeals court threw out his conviction because of faulty testimony and deficient legal help at his trial, and the 49-year-old Velez in August accepted a plea bargain to a lesser charge, allowing him to be paroled. (AP Photo/Michael Graczyk) | Michael Graczyk

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A former Rio Grande Valley construction worker walked out of prison Wednesday, nearly six years after being sent to Texas’ death row for the fatal beating of his girlfriend’s young son.

Manuel Velez was allowed to be paroled after pleading no contest to a lesser charge of injury to a child. His attorneys insist he is innocent in the 2005 death of Angel Moreno a day before the boy’s first birthday.

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