The man who allegedly shot former Nebraska standout Mike Rozier in 1996 has been released from prison, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report.Â
Louis Pierce served 20 years of a life sentence before winning a legal battle he started while in custody. A federal appeals court upheld a ruling in Superior Court in Camden, New Jersey, that overturned his conviction in the shooting of Rozier and another man, the report says.Â
Pierce, 56, walked out of prison on April 16.
Rozier, a storied Husker running back who won the Heisman Trophy in 1983, was five years removed from a football career that saw collegiate stardom and an impressive professional career in the NFL when he was shot three times in his hometown Camden in November 1996.
“If one of those bullets was just a little bit over and hit the artery next to my kidney, I’d be dead now,†he told the Los Angeles Times two weeks after the incident.Â
When Bob Devaney died on May 9, 1997, Nebraska athletics lost a giant — the man who transformed Husker football into a defining element of our state.Â
The most-decorated Husker running back in history, Mike Rozier won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Award in 1983. He rushed for an NU-record 2,148 yards and 29 touchdowns that season.Â