USA - Colorado. Outgoing Gov. Bill Ritter today awarded a posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, who was executed in 1939

Outgoing Gov. Bill Ritter (Democratic, 55, white) today awarded a posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, white, who was executed at the age of 23 in 1939 by lethal gas after being convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl, Dorothy Drain, in 1936. Ritter said an overwhelming amount of evidence suggests Arridy didn't commit the crime. "This would include false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else," the governor said. A man named Frank Agular, 35, a Mexican native who had recently been fired by the girls' father, Riley Drain, confessed to the crime. He maintained until his execution that Arridy had nothing to do with it. Ritter is a former prosecutor who leaves office Tuesday. He called the Arridy case a "tragic conviction." It's the first time a Colorado governor has pardoned someone who has been executed. It was not until 1961 that Robert Perske, an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities, learned of Arridy's life and eventual fate. He spent more than 30 years looking into the story, and a couple years ago he approached Colorado attorney David A. Martinez and asked for help. "He said, 'I think Joe is innocent, and I really think he deserves a pardon,'" Martinez told AOL News. "As I found out more about it, Joe became more compelling to me, and I felt Joe was innocent. I found out that he had been classified an imbecile and that his mental capacity was that of a 4-year-old, the equivalent of a 46 I.Q.. It was a case of frontier justice. The passion and prejudices of the community made them want to hang up the varmints, if you will." Martinez assembled a 500-page petition regarding the case and put together a synopsis of it that Perske has since described as the "most convincing rendition" he has ever read. Gov. Ritter agreed and on Friday granted Joe Arridy's posthumous pardon. "Pardoning Mr. Arridy cannot undo this tragic event in Colorado history," Ritter said. "It is in the interests of justice and simple decency, however, to restore his good name." Neither Martinez nor Perske has been able to locate any of Arridy's living relatives. He remains buried in the prison cemetery. Perske said he would like to have made for him a tombstone that says, "Here lies an innocent man."