PITTSBURGH -- A man serving a life sentence for a 1988 murder was freed Monday after charges were withdrawn because his DNA didn't match evidence from clothing worn by the killer.

Drew Whitley, 50, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989 for the shooting death of Noreen Malloy, 22, outside the McDonald's restaurant she managed. DNA test results released last week showed that hairs said to be from the killer's hat did not match Whitley. An earlier test on a mask showed the same result.

After seeing that evidence, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. asked that the life sentence be vacated and on Monday his office dropped the charges.

"I want to thank God for keeping me strong through this nightmare," Whitley said in court.

He thanked his lawyers and his mother, Hattie Whitley, before a judge let him walk free from the courtroom.

"Mom, you know I'm crazy about you," Whitley said to his mother. "We went through this war together ... and we came out victorious." He also thanked his defense attorney Scott Coffey for working on the case "like you were fighting for my life."

"It don't get no better than this," said Hattie Whitley, throwing her arms around her son outside the courtroom as he choked back tears. "It's wonderful."

"It's like Christmas," said Marcus Whitley, Drew Whitley's son, as he walked with his father and about a dozen other relatives from the courthouse into a bright, sunny afternoon. Marcus Whitley, 31, was a teenager when his father was sent to jail.

Coffey applauded the ruling, but questioned why it hadn't happened sooner.

No one from Malloy's family attended the hearing. Whitley, who has always maintained his innocence, had been jailed since his arrest soon after the shooting. After the hearing, he went to the Allegheny County Jail to fill out paperwork and retrieve his belongings.

Police responding to Malloy's shooting in August 1988 recovered a bloodstained coat, hat and shoes outside the restaurant. The stocking mask was found in a parking lot nearby. Blood on the shoes matched Whitley's blood type, but the shoes were destroyed in a 1996 flood that wiped out much of the county police evidence room.

A witness identified Whitley based on the shape of his face and his walk.

At the trial, a crime lab technician said 41 hairs found in the mask resembled Whitley's hair. DNA testing was not available at the time.

Two of the 41 hairs were damaged in a testing attempt in the 1990s and the other 39 were lost. They were found again in July and a judge in September ordered they be compared to Whitley's DNA. After the results of that test came back in favor of the defense, prosecutors asked that hairs from the hat be tested.

At Monday's hearing, another former inmate was in attendance to support Whitley. Thomas Doswell spent 19 years in prison on rape charges before being exonerated last year by DNA evidence.

"I'm just thankful to see that another man has been found innocent," he said. "We don't have a perfect system. But it works."

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FLASHBACK: Thomas Doswell spent 19 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. His case is now paving the way for men like Whitley. He was the first person in the county to have a conviction overturned by DNA evidence. Channel 4 Action News reporter Jake Ploeger talks with Doswell

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