OLATHE, Kan. — Darryl Burton Spent 24 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, fully exonerated, he is speaking out.

Burton was convicted of a murder in 1984. He was St. Louis pumping gas into his car when another man nearby got into a fight and he was shot and killed. Burton was convicted of murder. He says he only met with his public defender once. In less than an hour, a jury convicted him. He was sentenced to life without parole.

Burton told a group of formerly homeless children at Kids TLC on Sunday that he knows what it’s like to feel hopeless or even suicidal. He once hated the people who put him in prison as well as the people who surrounded him.

“I couldn’t believe it. “I felt  shock emotions anger disbelief rage,” Burton said. “It was surreal because I was thinking the system would work and the judicial system would actually prove that I was innocent.  That is what I thought. Innocent people don’t go to prison and don’t get found guilty, but I was wrong I was mistaken.”

Burton was exonerated four years ago after an Olathe attorney re-opened the case. He now speaks around the world about his experience.

Click here to learn more about Burton’s experience.