Johnny Small: North Carolina: Major Development; Freed on bond; The judge has ordered that Small, jailed as a teen 28 years ago, can be freed on bond - ruling that there was not enough evidence to justify now 43-year-old Johnny Small's conviction for the 1988 murder..." Parson's decision came after Small's teenage buddy testified this week he was pressured by police to testify at the murder trial that both were at the scene. David Bollinger says a Wilmington homicide investigator made up the story and his grandfather pressured him to lie on the witness stand." ABC11;

"A judge says a North Carolina man who was jailed as a teenager for murder 28 years ago can be released from prison once he posts bond. North Carolina Superior Court Judge W. Douglas Parsons ruled Thursday that there was not enough evidence to justify 43-year-old Johnny Small's conviction for the 1988 murder. Parson's decision came after Small's teenage buddy testified this week he was pressured by police to testify at the murder trial that both were at the scene. David Bollinger says a Wilmington homicide investigator made up the story and his grandfather pressured him to lie on the witness stand. Small has been imprisoned since the 1988 murder of Pam Dreher in Wilmington. Johnny Small was just 15 when police came to arrest him in 1988 - so young he assumed he was in trouble for a curfew violation. Instead, police charged him with first-degree murder of a woman who owned a tropical-fish store - a place Small says he'd never even visited. He was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, mainly on the testimony of co-defendant Bollinger, who once lived with Small's family. Bollinger says he testified only because prosecutors promised his charged would be dropped in exchange, and threatened the death penalty if he didn't cooperate. Small "has spent his entire adult life and part of his childhood in prison for a crime he did not commit," a defense motion said. Now, he's grateful his one-time friend, Bollinger, came forward, even though it took decades, he told The Associated Press in an interview at New Hanover County Correctional Center. "He's doing what he thinks is right, what he knows is right," said Small, adding that he hasn't communicated with Bollinger since his former friend testified. "And I'm happy for that. But am I going to jump for joy? No. Because he should have.""

http://abc11.com/news/judge-nc-man-jailed-as-a-teen-28-years-ago-can-be-freed/1466073/