The prison gates finally have been flung open for a Missouri man who spent almost half a century behind bars for a triple murder he had always insisted he didn’t commit.

Kevin Strickland, now 62, beamed as he was wheeled out to the fresh air on Tuesday morning after being exonerated in a 1978 triple murder case in the U.S.

However, he is not eligible to receive a dime from the state for his nearly 43-year wrongful conviction, one of the longest-standing wrongful convictions in America’s history, as Missouri only permits compensation from the state if an individual's innocence is proven as a result of DNA testing.

Now, thousands of supporters have raised more than $1.4 million through a GoFundMe campaign to help him start a new life and pay his medical bills.

“I wish Mr. Strickland all the best for the rest of his life,” said one donor.

On April 25, 1978, Larry Ingram, 21, John Walker, 20, and Sherrie Black, 22, were shot to death while a key witness was struck in the leg and identified Strickland as one of the four men responsible for the fatal shootings.

"Still in disbelief...I didn't think this day would come," Strickland told reporters as he was rolled out of the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron.

The only survivor of the shooting later tried for years to recant her testimony, saying that she was pressured by police to blame the murders on him before passing away in 2015.

The now-free man received a 50-year-life sentence without the possibility of parole by an all-White jury even though he has always maintained that he was home watching television when the killings took place.

"I'm not necessarily angry. It's a lot. I think I've created emotions that you all don't know about just yet," Strickland said./YS