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Wrongfully Convicted San Francisco Man Freed After 18 Years

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP) -- A man wrongfully convicted for a 1989 double-murder in San Francisco has been ordered freed after spending 18 years in prison.

Prosecutors told Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ming-Mei Lee that key witnesses are dead or unavailable and they will not retry 40-year-old Caramad Conley for the killings of Roshawn Johnson and Charles Hughes.

Conley has been serving two terms of life in prison without parole.

The judge last month ruled that Conley was wrongfully convicted because the star witness, police informant Clifford Polk, lied on the stand. Polk has since died.

The judge on Tuesday ordered the release of Conley, who is currently in the San Francisco County Jail.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said authorities were awaiting clearance from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation before releasing Conley.

(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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