Related video: This man spent 32 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit 2:42

(CNN) -- A California man has been released from prison after serving 33 years for a crime Los Angeles prosecutors now say he did not commit after reviewing exonerating evidence that was revealed by another inmate six years ago, the district attorney announced.

Daniel Saldana was sentenced to 45 years in prison after he and two others were convicted of attempted murder in a 1989 incident in which a group of six high school students were shot while driving, allegedly mistaking them for members of a criminal gang. according to a press release from Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon's office. Two of the students were injured.

But a new examination of the case this year "determined that Daniel Saldana is innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted and spent 33 years in prison," Gascón said at a news conference Thursday.

"I never lost hope," Saldana said at the news conference. "I'm innocent, one hundred percent, I've said it from day one," he said.

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Daniel Saldana, right, leaves the Los Angeles Hall of Justice with his attorney Mike Romano on May 25, 2023. (Credit: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

New evidence

Exonerating evidence was revealed during a 2017 probation hearing for one of Saldana's co-defendants, who told the parole board that Saldana not only did not participate in the shooting, but was not present at the time, Gascon said.

The new information was not communicated to Saldana or his lawyer, according to Gascón.

It wasn't until February that the parole hearing statement was submitted to Gascon's office by the California Board of Parole Hearings, which has had new members since 2017.

"This information was clearly exonerant, that the prosecutor's office was obliged to hand over Mr. Saldana or his lawyer, but it was not delivered. This failure to investigate this matter in 2017 cost Mr. Saldana an additional six years in prison," Gascón said.

"This is overwhelming," Saldana said Thursday. "I just knew that one day this was going to come. I'm so thankful and I just thank God, Jesus."

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Gascon blamed many people for the delay in justice, including the parole board and the prosecutor who attended the hearing "but apparently did nothing." That deputy prosecutor is no longer in the office, Gascon said.

"Mr. Saldana, you always maintained your innocence and I want to apologize once again to you and your family for this failure," the district attorney said. "I know this will not bring back the decades you endured in prison, and I hope our apology will be a small comfort to you as you begin your new life."

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that it is pleased that the district attorney's office took action on the case and noted that the board "maintains transparency by conducting hearings that include the presence and participation of the appropriate parties, including the attorney for the incarcerated person and a representative of the District Attorney's Office."

"Daniel Saldana's claims of innocence by his co-defendant were made in an environment with the deputy district attorney present, making his office aware of these claims in 2017," the department said. "If the claims of innocence had been made in an environment without the deputy district attorney present, the board would have been responsible for referring the matter to the prosecuting agency."

Saldana will live and work with her family for the foreseeable future, her attorney Mike Romano, director of Stanford Law School's Three Strikes Project, told CNN.

Crime