Danny Davis will be home for Thanksgiving, a dream for many, but for him, a goal three decades in the making after he was wrongfully convicted of murder in downstate Illinois.

Davis was just 20 years old in 1992 when he was coerced into confessing to a gruesome murder. It took more than 30 years to prove he didn’t do it, just in time for the holidays with his family.

Michael Jordan is Danny Davis’ favorite basketball player, and was still playing for the Bulls when Davis went to prison.

“I was in prison with their second championship,” Davis said.

That’s why he requested dinner at Michael Jordan’s Steak House on Monday night to celebrate his exoneration.

“I ate me a big steak,” Davis said.

In prison for more than three decades, Davis said he had learned to ignore the holidays.

“At one point, I just said all holidays are out, and focused on what needs to be done for me to get out,” he said.

Davis was convicted of the March 1992 murder of Mildred Smith, who was discovered stabbed to death in her apartment in Cairo at the far southern edge of Illinois.

“There’s nothing else to tie them. There’s no forensics tying them to the crime, no eyewitnesses, nothing like that,” said Davis’ attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, with the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.

Myerscough-Mueller said Davis and his younger brother were coerced into a guilty plea.

“They said, ‘If you go to trial, Danny will get the death penalty, and he will die.’ So they were at jury selection, they pull him into a room, they threaten them with this, and so they say, ‘Okay, we’ll plead guilty,’” she said.

Davis was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but he and his legal team never stopped fighting. In 2018, Smith’s fingernail clippings were finally tested for DNA. The male DNA found did not match Davis.

His conviction was vacated and he was released from custody last year, but he was still a long way from truly free.

His case was expected to go back to trial next month, until – out of nowhere – prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case altogether earlier this month.

“I knew we would be here at this point one day. We didn’t know how long,” Davis said. “Man, it’s just a blessing that I don’t have to go through that.

Now 53 years old, Davis spent more of his life behind bars than on the outside. On Tuesday, he got a special visit from three men who understand that better than anyone.

Jimmy Soto, Darien Harris, and Robert Johnson also spent years in prison for murders they did not commit. Between the four of them, Davis, Soto, Harris and Johnson spent more than 115 years behind bars before they were able to clear their names.

“They’ve lived the same things, they’re going through the same things, and can be a good support for each other,” Myerscough-Mueller said.

Davis said he said he’s ready to make up for lost time with his supportive family.

“Now I don’t take anything for granted in life; nothing,” he said. “I enjoy every bit of whatever that I’m able, the good Lord is able to give me the strength to do, I enjoy,” he said.

Davis’ attorney said the last step for them is the obtaining a certificate of innocence. They will file a court petition to get it.