His daughter Tanya Groomes, now 37, said she and her two sisters and their mother had just finished dinner in March 1981 when police came to their South Philadelphia home and arrested her father.
"I can remember like it was yesterday," Groomes said during Wednesday's wait for her father's release.
She said that her father made good use of his time in prison - he got an associate's degree in child psychology and a high school diploma, and learned to be a brick mason. She said he also read a lot and worked on his case.