It truly is horrible if he didn't do it. I know that a lot of prisoners say they are innocent, but a few of them really are innocent. He was only 17 when arrested and spent his whole life in prison. My oldest is 15. I can't imagine him having his whole life taken away from him in a couple of years. The police were under pressure to find the person responsible and he might have just happened to have been a convenient scapegoat. He was a petty thief, but maybe not a murderer? Only God knows.
It’s also possible that the three murders were not connected, so it’s possible that two murderers got away with it.