An inmate known for his decades-long licensed golf cartoons says, "God has continued to give me strength."

Valentino Dixon poses with the art of golf that he has created inside Attica's New York Correctional Center.

(AP / File)

An inmate who has stormed the world of golf through lush drawings of courses and holes, painstakingly crafted during his days behind bars in one of New York's most famous jails, takes advantage of his first day of free work a death sentence of several decades was overturned.

Valentino Dixon, 48, left Erie Court in Buffalo on Wednesday after a judge accepted a guilty plea from another man in the 1991 shooting death of a 17-year-old teenager. years in western New York.

"So many times I'm close [to giving up]but God kept giving me the strength to continue and now I know why, "Dixon told Golf Digest magazine after his release.

Dixon had been in prison for 27 years – most of them at the Attica Correctional Center. He was serving a 39-year prison sentence and a 2012 article in which he exhibited his work and aroused national interest about his plight declared that he would not have been released for parole until 2030 .

Of course, there is the fact that Dixon did not play golf. Already.

But during his time in prison, his lack of experience never prevented him from imagining his own courses and holes.

"I use a photo as a starting point and then I transform the image in my own way," he wrote in the Golf Digest 2012 section. "Sometimes I find a tiny reference material, like a tree on a stamp or a mountain on a calendar, then I imagine my own golf course with him. "

Dixon said that he had become addicted to golf-related drawings after a Attic keeper brought in his cell a photograph of one of the sport's most iconic holes – par 3, twelfth hole at Augusta National, home of the Masters tournament.

The former detainee stated that the director had asked him to draw the photo in favor of the man and after spending 15 hours using colored pencils to recreate the hole known as Golden Bell, he was rejuvenated.

"I was getting bored of drawing animals and people and all I could get out of National Geographic," he said. "After 19 years spent at the Correctional Center of Attica, the appearance of a golf hole spoke to me. It seemed peaceful. I imagine that playing would be like fishing. "

Dixon continued to draw and continued to be featured in many media.

Some works are currently hanging on the wall of his mother's house. Other creations have been sold online. But most importantly, the drawings sparked public interest in the Dixon case, and finally cleared the way for its release.

Dixon, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office, was sentenced for the murder of Torriano Jackson, the attempted murder of his brother Aaron and the attack of a bystander on August 10, 1991 near a restaurant of hot dogs in Buffalo.

Dixon has always claimed that he was not the shooter and another man, 46-year-old Lamarr Scott, has repeatedly confessed to killing Torriano Jackson.

"Two days [after the shooting]LaMarr Scott, a guy I knew but I was not close to, told WGRZ TV that he was the shooter and was engaging in the police, "Dixon writes in Golf Digest's article. . by a fight – was triggered by "love drama in young children."

"Because my father drove LaMarr downtown, a lot was done that he had forced LaMarr to confess. For murder? If you like it, Dixon added.

However, in front of a grand jury, Scott brought back his confession, reported the news of Buffalo, and Dixon remained in detention.

Scott, according to a report from Golf Digest, said prosecutors had pushed him to "change his story by bringing his adoptive parents into the meeting room and threatening their well-being after they left."

In a sworn affidavit of 2002, he added that after confessing to the police being the shooter, "I was told that they had what they wanted and to leave the situation to them ".

But Christopher Belling, who sued the case, challenged the account.

"[Scott] had his own lawyer and I do not remember adoptive parents who were there …[Scott] came to the grand jury, and he told a different story. It's the story that the grand jury heard, and that's the story with which they went, "he said in an interview with Golf Digest.

The outlet described the case as "complicated, but on the surface it involves poor police work, no physical evidence linking Dixon, conflicting testimony from unreliable witnesses, confessions recorded by another man, public defender who did not call. a witness at trial and charges of perjury against those who said Dixon did not do so.

Golf Digest reported that, over the years, Dixon's lawyers have made several appeals for his conviction to be overturned and that his daughter, Valentina, has made a local effort to raise money for his father's bills. Dixon sought pardon or clemency from Governor Andrew Cuomo's office and was also supported by a documentary made by students from Georgetown University who were taking a course on prison reform.

The Erie County District Attorney's Unjustified Conviction Unit finally investigated Dixon's case this year and interviewed about 30 people, including Scott and Dixon, according to the Buffalo News. Thirteen of these people, says the newspaper, imply Scott or say that Dixon was innocent.

"After reviewing this case, it became clear to me that Mr. Dixon would no longer be serving a sentence for a crime that he had not committed," the county attorney said on Wednesday. Erie, John J. Flynn.

The statement added that "due to" newly discovered evidence, there is more proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Dixon committed the shot. "

Scott pleaded guilty to Erie County Court on Wednesday for charges of manslaughter and first degree aggression and reckless third degree aggression. He was already serving a 25 to 50 year sentence for an armed robbery committed in 1993, which paralyzed the victim and was to be sentenced to a maximum of 25 years at the end of October.

"There was a fight, shots were fired, I caught the rifle under the bench, I changed it automatically, all the bullets were fired.Unfortunately, Torriano finished to die, "said Associated Press. "I dropped the gun and I ran and it was over."

Scott added that he had obtained the semi-automatic Tec-9 used in the Dixon shoot and that they drove together to the site where Torriano was killed.

The judge, Susan Eagan, confirmed the criminal possession charge of a weapon against Dixon, but said that the sentence of 5 to 15 years of imprisonment he was charged with was satisfactory.

And because of that, Flynn said Dixon was "not an innocent man," according to Associated Press.

"Mr. Dixon is innocent of the shootings and the murder for which he was convicted," Flynn told reporters, "but Mr. Dixon brought the weapon into action, which was Mr. Dixon's weapon. "

Dixon, who received applause in the courtroom after learning on Wednesday that he was eligible for release, said he planned to continue drawing – and would fight for him. other prisoners in legal struggles.

"If you do not have money in this system, it is difficult to get justice because the system is not equipped or designed to allow a poor to benefit from a fair trial," he added. "So we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Dixon was met Wednesday by her daughter and two 14-month-old twins, who told the news agency that she wanted to buy him a cell phone and teach him to use the Snapchat app. His mother said that the group was going to the Red Lobster for a meal and that "everyone was invited".

And his plans for today?

Make breakfast, lunch and dinner for his mother and grandmother.