PELHAM, Tenn. — A Tennessee man serving life in prison for murder has been freed after 12 years over a single fingerprint pointing to another man.

News outlets report 36-year-old Adam Braseel accepted a deal last month allowing him to maintain his innocence and get time served for felony aggravated assault. He now wants a pardon.

No one witnessed the 2006 bludgeoning of Malcolm Burrows. But his sister told authorities that a red-headed man lured her brother away and returned to beat her so severely she suffered brain damage. No traces of the red-headed Braseel were found at the scene.

In 2017, a retested fingerprint matched a red-headed man named Kermit Eugene Bryson, who killed himself in 2008 as authorities tried arresting him for killing an officer. The plea ended the subsequent retrial.