MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man has been released from prison after serving 16 years for a murder he did not commit, a local prosecutor announced Tuesday.

The 2009 jury found Edgar Barrientos-Quintana guilty of killing Jesse Mickelson, 18, in a drive-by shooting. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But after a three-year investigation, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s Conviction Review Unit in August released a damning report from the original Minneapolis police investigation that also cited evidence supporting Barrientos-Quintana’s alibi.

A judge approved Barrientos Quintana’s release last week.

“Nothing can give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana those 16 years back, and we are very sorry for that,” Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty said in a statement Tuesday. “Our hearts also go out to the family of Jesse Mickelson for their irreparable loss. “When the criminal legal system does not operate ethically, it causes significant harm.”

In a ruling Wednesday vacating Barrientos Quintana’s convictions and ordering his release, state court Judge John McBride determined that Barrientos Quintana did not receive a fair trial.

Barrientos Quintana’s attorney failed to represent him effectively and prosecutors failed to reveal favorable evidence, Moriarty said. Investigators also used coercive lineup and interrogation tactics, which resulted in unreliable witness identifications, he added.

Security footage captured Barrientos-Quintana at a grocery store shortly before the shooting, and the attorney general’s office pointed to phone records not presented at trial that placed him at his girlfriend’s suburban apartment shortly after the shooting. The Conviction Review Unit determined that he could not have traveled to and from the crime scene in that time.

Critics also blamed police, who showed an old photo of Barrientos-Quintana with a shaved head to witnesses who had described the suspect as bald. Security footage showed Barrientos Quintana had short, dark hair at the time of the shooting.

Barrientos-Quintana last month asked McBride to overturn his conviction based on Ellison’s report. In September, Moriarty revealed that Mickelson’s sisters believed Barrientos Quintana was innocent and supported his release.