MANNING, S.C. — Michael Pearson, a South Carolina man who said for years he was wrongly convicted of a crime that put him behind bars for over a decade, is now out of prison and charges have been dropped.

Ernest "Chip" Finney, 3rd Circuit Solicitor has dropped all charges against Pearson.

The 51-year-old Pearson served 15 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit and maintained he was innocent.

He was convicted in the 2010 beating of a Manning businessman named "Slick" Gibbons

During a hearing on August 28 Finney told the court that his office uncovered new confessions from other men allegedly involved in the crime.

One of Pearson’s former co-defendants, Victor Weldon, provided investigators with a detailed statement in 2023, passing a polygraph test while doing so. Weldon impl

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