FARMINGTON, Mo. – A man sentenced to life in prison under an outdated law was freed from prison Monday, in part because of an unexpected group of advocates.

Paige Spears’ crime was a decades-old armed robbery that former cops said he’d served enough time for. FOX 2 was there for the dramatic moment of freedom.

Spears, 64, walked out of prison after 37 years, threw his hands in the air, and shouted, “Thank God! Thank God!”

“I’ve always said that one of the things I want to do is kiss the ground man,” Spears said, bending down to the ground saying. “Thank you!”

His 88-year-old mother Betty Cummings took a shuttle from St. Louis to Farmington Correctional Center to see him released.

“I can hardly believe this,” she said as they embraced. Spears called her, “My heart.”

Spears was 27 years old when he was sentenced to life in 1988 under Missouri’s old “3 strikes” law. Missouri changed that law shortly after his conviction, but it wasn’t made retroactive to include Spears.

“Words can’t explain how law enforcement came to assist me like that,” he said.

Cops took up his cause. They produce a weekly podcast called “The Brighter Side of Blue.” Former Missouri Governor Mike Parson commuted Spears’ sentence.

“For them to rally around my case like that,” Spears said. “And know that I have been rehabilitated, and I am in prison for an excessive sentence for armed robbery, you know, I can’t thank them enough.”

In what may seem an unusual turn, Spears also thanked the prison. Warden Teri Vandergriff joined him outside to see him off.

“He was the backbone of many programs. He mentored a lot of the other offenders here,” Vandergriff said. “And to get to see everything in your career hoping to do, which is to leave corrections in a better place than you found it, you get to see that with him.”

Spears added, “A lot of people don’t think the self-help programs work in the DOC. I’m living proof it does.”

Esther Noldon was a stranger until she heard about Spears’ story. She came for his release day and brought him a St. Louis Cardinals cap.

“Some consequences are just a little too much, so I just had to part of this journey with him because I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Spears said he’ll take people’s faith that helped free him and turn it into action.

“I’m willing to put as much effort in the free world as I put inside, to be successful out here,” he said.