David McCallum exonerated after 29 years, thanks to two Canadians

David McCallum was a scared teenager sentenced to a U.S. prison, young and Black convicted of a murder he did not commit. He walked free two months ago, now a 45 year old man exonerated. It was his chance encounter with a Canadian, middle-class White kid who wrote to him in prison that would set off a chain of events to eventually recognize a wrongful conviction.

On Oct 27th 1985, when I went to the store that was last time I'd been home. I'm sitting on some steps with a group of friends and I notice a detective car show up and three police officers got out of the car and they said to me, 'would you mind coming down to the precinct for questioning' and I said 'OK'. I didn't do anything wrong.David McCallum, in the documentary 'David and Me'

David McCallum was only 16-years-old that night... and in the nearly three decades that followed, he always insisted that he'd done nothing wrong.

But he did confess. David McCallum and his friend, Willie Stuckey, both gave false confessions to police. After hours of intense interrogation, the teenagers agreed that they'd kidnapped and killed a man, Nathan Blenner, whose body had turned up in a Brooklyn Park.

Both teens were sentenced to life in prison. Willie Stuckey died behind bars, more than a decade ago. David McCallum is here today, though. That's thanks in no so small part to the efforts of Rubin "The Hurricane Carter", the late, champion of the wrongly-accused who was himself once the subject of a Free-Hurricane-Carter campaign. He lent his support to the Free-David McCallum campaign.

David McCallum reacts after hearing his conviction was overturned at Brooklyn Supreme Court on October 15, 2014. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Mr. McCallum's cause gained an even wider audience when a documentary film called David & Me was released earlier this year. And soon Marc Lamy and Ray Klonsky -- the two Canadian filmmakers behind the doc -- were scrambling to recut the movie's ending. On October 15th David McCallum left a Brooklyn courtroom as a free man. He'd spent 28 years, 11 months and 12 days behind bars.

David McCallum was in our Toronto studio with Marc Lamy and Ray Klonsky , the directors of the documentary film "David & Me" about David McCallum's story.

This segment was produced by The Current's Josh Bloch.