Reputed Black Mafia leader Lonnie Dawson is out of prison. Here’s what to know about his case.

After more than 40 years behind bars, reputed former Black Mafia leader Lonnie Dawson has been freed from prison, ending a decades-long legal drama that includes state and federal convictions for crimes, including drug trafficking and murder.

Dawson’s release, though weeks old, went viral on social media in recent days thanks to video clips appearing to show his first moments as a newly free man. The widely shared video shows a man exiting the gates of a prison and immediately kneeling on a sidewalk in prayer.

Dawson, also known as Abdul Salim, was freed from SCI Smithfield in Huntingdon County on Dec. 22 following a successful petition under the Pennsylvania Post Conviction Relief Act, his attorney, David B. Mischak, told The Inquirer. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections confirmed Dawson’s release date, noting that he had been held in that state prison for three months before he was freed. The bulk of his incarceration, however, was served in federal prison.

“Mr. Dawson has spent the majority of his adult life behind bars,” Mischak said in a statement posted to his law firm’s website. “After more than 40 years of incarceration, Lonnie Dawson is grateful for the opportunity to live out his remaining years with dignity and peace.”

Dawson’s path to release was a long and circuitous one that stretches back to a 1975 murder of which he was twice convicted at the state level — and sentenced to life. In the 1980s, federal convictions on drug distribution and related charges followed, leading to a staggering 134-year federal sentence. Here is how The Inquirer and Daily News covered it:

In November 1975, a purported drug dealer and Black Mafia member named Herschell Williams — also known as the “Jolly Green Giant” due to his 6-foot-6 frame — was gunned down near his Mount Airy home. Shortly after the murder, Dawson, along with fellow reputed Black Mafia members Roy Hoskins and Joseph Rhone, were arrested in connection with the slaying while driving on the Schuylkill Expressway, reports from the time indicate.

Investigators later linked Williams’ murder to a dispute over cocaine, and authorities alleged that Hoskins and Rhone carried out the shooting while Dawson, whom they said ordered the killing, served as the getaway driver, The Inquirer and Daily News reported. Several months later, both Dawson and Hoskins were convicted of murder in separate cases and sentenced to life in prison, while Rhone, who jumped bail following his arrest, remained a fugitive.

The convictions stuck until July 1978, when the state Supreme Court ordered new trials due to legal errors during the initial proceedings. Following their arrests, both men had been questioned by then-Detective Michael Chitwood, and Dawson’s conviction was overturned in part because his attorney was not allowed to cross-examine Chitwood. Dawson alleged Chitwood had fabricated a confession used during the trial, according to Inquirer reports.

The retrial, however, did not work out in either man’s favor. Dawson, for his part, was again convicted in August 1982 and later sentenced to life for a second time, despite having maintained at trial that he was busy giving one of his children a haircut about 20 blocks away at the time Williams was killed, according to Inquirer and Daily News reports.

As Dawson awaited retrial in the Williams case, more legal issues were added to his docket. In April 1982, an FBI affidavit alleged that Dawson and Hoskins quickly took over the Black Mafia after the state Supreme Court overturned their convictions, and revealed that both had been investigated over the past year by federal authorities.

That, however, only came to light after Dawson, Hoskins, and several others were arrested following a high-speed car chase on I-95 in which a car was riddled with bullets in an apparent attempt to kill a federal informant, Inquirer and Daily News reports from the time indicate.

The informant, Lawrence D. Simons, who said he was a member of the Black Mafia, was unharmed in the chase, which concluded after his would-be killers crashed their vehicle into a tree, the Daily News reported.

Federal grand jury indictments followed, with Dawson and his alleged cohorts facing a lengthy list of charges, including obstruction of justice, conspiracy, drug, and gun counts. Authorities alleged Dawson was the Black Mafia’s leader, and said the group was linked to drug trafficking throughout Philadelphia and Delaware County, The Inquirer reported.

After a three-week trial, Dawson was found guilty on a number of counts, and sentenced to a 134-year prison sentence and $230,000 in fines — though a later appeal dropped that sentence to 65 years and $100,000. Hoskins faced a similarly stiff penalty.

U.S. District Judge Louis C. Bechtle in his ruling referred to both men as “major drug manufacturers” who were a “danger to the community.” The sentences, the Daily News reported at the time, were the harshest ever imposed by a federal judge in the Philadelphia area for drug trafficking.

Dawson in court denied he was involved in a major drug ring and called the charges “a bunch of malarkey,” the Daily News reported.

While Dawson was imprisoned in the early 1980s, a report from the Daily News alleged that he remained in control of drug sales in Philadelphia — particularly in North Philadelphia, Germantown, and Mount Airy. An unnamed FBI source told the People Paper that despite Dawson being jailed, his drug trafficking activity did not slow down, and said he regularly met with organized crime figures to orchestrate sales.

The Daily News later reported that Dawson was placed in administrative segregation in prison. The move, an unnamed associate told the paper, diminished Dawson’s alleged stature in the drug trade, and as a result, he “ain’t calling too many shots now.”

In late 1984, Dawson responded to the Daily News’ reporting directly in a letter to the paper in which he denied controlling drug sales anywhere. While in prison, he said, he had never met with organized crime figures to discuss drug manufacturing or sales, and said claims were floated by reporters “in hope of getting some type of promotion and/or attention.”

“Why must I be the sacrificial lamb?” Dawson wrote. “Why?”