The Huntsville police officer whose murder conviction was overturned last month is free.

William Ben Darby is a free man after being released Thursday from Limestone Correctional Facility. He is free on bond, according to the office of his attorney, Robert Tuten. He is also listed as being on bond by the state court website and he is no longer listed as an inmate by the Alabama Department of Corrections.

Darby was released directly from the prison.

Darby had been incarcerated at Limestone Correctional Facility since a Madison County jury convicted him of murder in 2021. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the jury’s verdict March 24, finding that trial judge Donna Pate erred in instructing the jury.

While on duty, Darby shot and killed a Huntsville man after responding to a call. Darby’s attorneys have claimed Darby fired in defense of himself and other officers at the scene.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by Pate.

The shooting occurred on April 3, 2018. Darby was among the responding officers to a call involving Jeffrey Parker, who was threatening to shoot himself.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard has said the state will try the case against Darby again.

The appeals court ruled that Judge Pate erred in declining to give the jury the following instruction requested by Darby’s attorneys: “The reasonableness of an officer’s actions in using deadly force must be objectively reasonable judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, the fact that officers are forced to make split-second decisions, and in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them at the time.”

In their opinion, the appeals court judges wrote, “Although the trial court was not required to use the precise language in Darby’s requested instruction, the court erred by refusing to instruct the jury, in some fashion, that it must evaluate Darby’s use of deadly force from the perspective of a reasonable police officer in the same situation.”

AL.com reporter Ashley Remkus contributed to this report.