Brothers Who Spent Decades in Jail Cleared of 1987 Murder

Sandra Lison was murdered at the bar in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she worked; her body was found near a trail in Oconto County's Machickanee Forest on August 4, 1987. The night before, David and Robert Bintz, now 69 and 68, had gone to the bar where Lison worked to buy a case of beer and some cigarettes. More than 10 years later, David Bintz was behind bars for an unrelated sexual assault, and his cellmate told authorities Bintz confessed, in his sleep, to killing Lison along with his brother, Fox 11 reports. The two were charged with her murder and both were convicted in 2000, despite the fact that no physical evidence tied them to the crime, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports.

Now, nearly four decades after the 44-year-old's murder, forensic genetic genealogy has been used to identify Lison's actual killer: William Hendricks, who was later convicted of another sexual assault and died in 2000. A judge granted a motion to release the Bintz brothers on Wednesday, and David was released that same day, NBC 26 reports. It is not clear when Robert will be released, but his attorney says, that among other things, "Robert wants very dearly to go to a Green Bay Packers game." (More wrongful conviction stories.)