NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – “I never saw him outside of prison. I wasn’t born actually, when he went to prison so when he comes home, I want him to pick me up and hold me because he never really got a chance to do that outside of jail,” says Robert Jones’s daughter Bree Anderson.

Bree now has the chance to be reunited with her father after 23 and a half years.

Robert Jones was initially convicted and given a life sentence for a robbery and rape back in 1992. Just last year, the Louisiana 4th circuit court of appeals rescinded the ruling because the state withheld significant evidence that another man was guilty of the crime.

Since then, ‘Innocence Project New Orleans,’ a non-profit law office that strives to free innocent prisoners and expose injustice, took the case head-on.

They’ve been working to free Jones since his conviction in 1996.

“Given all the evidence that has emerged since Robert Jones was imprisoned, that he didn’t do the crime that he’s imprisoned for and someone else did it, it was very clear to us that he should be granted a nominal bail in order that he can go home and fight these charges with his family, with the kids he had taken from him 23 and a half years ago,” says Jones’s lawyer Emily Maw.

Bail was first set at roughly $500,000 and was lowered to about $35,000 Tuesday.

It’s a dream come true for family members, many completely overcome with emotion.

“Oh I feel like falling on the ground. It’s been so long, it’s been so long,” says Jones’s Aunt Denise Spencer.

But it’s still an uphill battle for Jones, his re-trial date is not yet set.

Even so, his daughter Bree remains confident in his future.

“I’m speechless, everybody is jubilant and I mean I’m not going to look back at the past. I’m ready for him to embrace what the future has for him,” says Anderson.