One-time aspiring baseball player wrongly imprisoned for 27 years is granted wish to sing National Anthem at Tampa Bay Rays game

Dillon was a one-time aspiring baseball player himself.

• 7/19/12, "Wrongly convicted man, William Dillon, imprisoned for 27 years sings National Anthem at Rays game," ABC News, K. Roberts

"A man who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit belted out the national anthem to celebrate his freedom at the Rays game Wednesday night.

William Dillon, 52, was convicted in 1981 for the murder of James Bvorak in Brevard County when he was just 21-years-old....

But Dillon maintained that he was innocent, and after an organization called the Innocence Project took on his case, a DNA test conducted in 2008 cleared him of the murder.

Dillon was an aspiring baseball player himself who caught the attention of Detroit Tigers and he was also sung in the high school choir before being sentenced to prison, according to a Huffington Post report (http://huff.to/NIrF48).

Governor Rick Scott personally apologized to Dillon and announced a $1.35 million compensation package for him.

Despite losing nearly three decades of his life, he wanted to celebrate his freedom, his love for his country and inspire others by opening the Rays game with the national anthem.

He got his wish. Wearing a shirt that read, "Not Guilty", he walked onto Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg Wednesday night, and combined his love of baseball and song with a passionate rendition of the National Anthem.

Dillon now lives in North Carolina with his girlfriend."...via Free Republic

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