Mary embraces her former cellmate Patricia Elder after being freed

On the night of the murder, Jones' attorneys said she came home from work when Willis demanded to use her tax refund check to buy cocaine for resale. Two dealers were invited over and Willis ordered everyone at gunpoint into a car. When they arrived at an alley, Jones heard a gunshot when her back was turned. She heard another shot as she ran away. She stayed with a friend until her arrest.

The USD lawyers argued that Jones' boyfriend had forced her at gunpoint to take part in the crime and that her subsequent trial did not take into account the fact that she was a victim of domestic violence.

Willis was convicted for his part in the crime and died on Death Row in 1988. Jones faced four different trials (one in which the jury failed to reach a verdict) and had an initial count of robbery changed to first-degree murder in 1987.

Spurred on by the recent work of the Justice Project, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office conducted its own independent investigation of the case that led to an agreement to dismiss Jones' previous convictions. In the latest ruling, she was sentenced to 11 years in jail for involuntary manslaughter - a time she has served almost three times over.

Law students help overturn 32-year murder conviction for woman who was domestically abused