Arvel Marshall hugged his defense attorney after hearing a judge overturn his murder conviction at Brooklyn Supreme Court in Downtown Brooklyn Friday.

"I'm happy it's over," said Marshall. "I'm kinda still depressed that I had to go through all this knowing I was innocent and I've been telling them."

The now 52 year-old is exonerated of the 2008 murder of 22-year-old Moustapha Oumaria in Crown Heights.

"My client is innocent, he always said he was innocent, he had an alibi," said Marshall's defense attorney Justin Bonus during Friday's court hearing.

This day was a bittersweet moment for Marshall, whose mother before seeing her son set free.

"It's about time, I'm happy," he said. "I am just happy to let me mom get the peace she needs."

The case reviewed by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit (CRU) that found critical evidence, surveillance video, was kept out of the trial.

According to the District Attorney's Office, the video shows two teens, one of which the suspected gunman in the murder walking before and after the shooting.

Initial accounts from witnesses described the gunman as a teenager, but Marshall was 36 at the time of the murder.

"The system has failed our society again and this case is one systemic failures of the court system, prosecution, defense and policing," said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

The CRU found that law enforcement never fully viewed the surveillance video, and Marshall's repeated requests for the video to be reviewed throughout the trial were denied.

The CRU also found that Marshall's defense attorney "abdicated his role as an advocate" and the judge on the case "abandoned his role of a neutral arbiter."

Marshall's case was reviewed by the CRU, thanks in part to advocacy by Derrick Hamilton, an exoneree himself who runs Brooklyn-based Family and Friends of the Wrongfully Convicted.

"We wish every case was like this, that there was video that could prove our client was innocent and who the suspects really are," he said.

Hamilton said the tragedy of this case is two fold.

"The real perpetrators are still at large out committing other crimes and hurting other people while our client was in prison suffering," said Hamilton.

Before leaving the courthouse to be officially released at Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City Marshall was asked what he will eat first as a free man.

He said he plans to eat soul food with his family.

Since 2014, 39 convictions have been vacated through the work of the CRU. It currently has 60 open investigations.