TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- After 16 years on death row, Rudolph Holton walked out of state prison a free man.

Holton (pictured at left) was released Monday after prosecutors determined they didn't have enough evidence to retry him for the 1986 murder of a Tampa Bay teen.

"I cried," Holton said of his reaction to his release. "I thought I was gonna die for something I didn't do."

Holton, 49, said he wasn't the only innocent man on death row, but he said he was lucky enough to have an attorney who believed in him.

After losing 16 years of his life to death row, Holton said he's not going to let anger or bitterness mar his future as a free man.

But he still choked up when he talked about the time he lost.

"There's not enough money that can give me back what I lost," Holton told a reporter who asked if there was anything the state can do to compensate him. "Six grandkids -- I didn't get to play with or hold them."

Bush Plans No New Reviews, Less Funding For Appeals

Holton was the 25th Florida death row inmate to be freed in the last 30 years.

Earlier Monday, Gov. Jeb Bush said he may ask for an investigation into why witnesses in Holton's case, including a jailhouse snitch, changed their stories.

Bush said he would not push for a review of Florida's death cases -- although he used Holton's case to call again for faster appeals.

Other states, most notably Illinois, have undertaken comprehensive reviews of death row cases after prisoners were released based on DNA and other evidence. Outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan recently created a firestorm when he commuted the sentences of all 167 inmates on that state's death row, saying the capital punishment system was "haunted by the demon of error."

Bush, on the other hand, has pushed to make Florida's execution system more expedient. In his proposed budget, Bush has recommended closing the state legal offices that file appeals for death row inmates and instead hiring private attorneys. He has also recommended cutting the funding for death row attorneys from $10 million this year to $6 million next year.

Holton was struck by the timing of the governor's budget proposal and his release.

"Just when innocent people get off death row, you want to cut off the funding," he said.

Holton Convicted In Rape, Murder Of Teen Prostitute

Holton had been convicted of raping and killing Katrina Graddy, a 17-year-old prostitute, and then setting her on fire in an abandoned drug house.

But about 10 days before she was murdered, Graddy told police another man raped her. Holton's trial attorney was never given that report and it took nine years for police to release it his appeal attorneys.

With a $1,000-a-day drug habit, Holton said he was guilty of committing burglaries and stealing -- and of shooting up in the crackhouse where Graddy was murdered.

"But I'm not a killer," he said Monday, blaming his conviction on being "at the wrong place at the right time."

In November 2001, a trial judge ruled that Holton didn't get a fair trial and ordered a new one. Last month, the state Supreme Court upheld that decision. On Friday, prosecutors decided they didn't have enough evidence to try Holton again.

"I never really thought this day would come," Holton told reporters. "It took 16 years."

Several years ago, Holton became discouraged that nothing was happening on his case and wrote then-Gov. Lawton Chiles asking him to sign a death warrant.

"Somehow that never did happen," Holton said, adding that things then started to improve.

He said he read, wrote, talked with inmates and did art work to keep his mind busy.

"I'm not going to let the system rob me of my mind and soul," he said.

Holton told reporters he was neither bitter nor angry.

"The anger that I had -- I used it as fuel to work harder," he said.

State lawyer Linda McDermott was assigned to Holton's case in 1997. Her persistence pursuing public records requests finally produced the key documents that won Holton's freedom, according to New York attorney Martin McClain, another lawyer who worked on Holton's appeal.

Holton refused to discuss his plans for the future in detail.

"I'm just going to take it one day at a time, keep a positive attitude and a smile on my face."