CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- For the third time in a month, the University of Virginia School of Law Innocence Project has gotten an absolute pardon for a wrongly convicted person.

According to a release, Emerson Stevens was convicted in 1986 in the abduction and murder of Mary Keyser Harding.

At that time, the only physical evidence ever linking him to the crime was a purported hair follicle match made by forensics investigators.

The release says this match was found using methods that are no longer considered valid.

Stevens was sentenced to 164 years in prison, and he served 32 before he was paroled in 2017.

The absolute pardon was announced last week.

“I want to thank all the lawyers and students that have been working on my case for years,” Stevens said. “I am hopeful that life will be easier for me without this murder conviction on my record.”

With the absolute pardon, his rights will be fully restored and he could seek compensation from Virginia.

The release says the clinic learned about a box of documents pertaining to this case in 2016. These documents were not shared with the defense during the trial.

The documents included evidence of various issues with the case, including coercive police practices, witness statements contradicting the prosecution's case, and additional witnesses that may have had information undermining the case against Stevens.

“We’re relieved that Emerson Stevens has finally been exonerated,” said professor Jennifer Givens, the clinic’s director. “One of the most troubling things about this wrongful conviction is that it has taken 35 years for Emerson to find any semblance of justice. And, of course, the devastation that this has caused him and his family is irreversible, as is the emotional toll this case no doubt has taken on Mary Harding’s family, who have yet to see the actual perpetrator prosecuted for her murder.”

The Innocence Project took on this case in 2010, and the formal request for an absolute pardon was filed last year.

“Emerson’s case was with the clinic when I was a student, and it was the first case I worked on when I returned as an attorney two years ago,” said Juliet Hatchett, a 2015 Law School alumna who is now associate director of the clinic. “The thousands of hours that went into this case are staggering. We say it often, but Emerson’s case is a stark illustration of how easy it is to wrongfully convict someone, and how nearly impossible it is to reverse that conviction. This exoneration is the product of years of investigation, years of litigation, and enormous dedication from our student teams and attorneys.”

Governor Ralph Northam took action on the case using information from an April 2020 Fourth Circuit Court decision that allowed Stevens to move forward with a petition for full exoneration.

A judge ruled that no reasonable jury would have convicted Stevens in the case if they had seen all of the evidence.

The Innocence Project has also recently gotten absolute pardons for Bobbie Morman, Jr. and Joey Carter.

Mormon's absolute pardon was announced in July, while Carter's came out on Aug. 11.