Imprisoned, exonerated, retried, acquitted -- all for the same crime.

Over the span of nearly 30 years he was imprisoned, exonerated, retried, and acquitted -- all for the same crime. 

And that's only the first half of his  journey through Georgia's justice system.

Now, Timothy Johnson is suing in federal court, but his case there and the questions it raises might be even more complex.

Johnson's attorney, Zahra Karinshak, said, "There was a wrong and it needs to be righted," after filing that 2015 federal lawsuit. 

But to understand what led up to that, you need to wind the clock back to 1984, when Warner Robins police detectives thought a then-22-year-old Johnson shot store clerk Teressa Stanley to death at a convenience store.

Johnson plead guilty to the crime and spent the next 21 years in prison,but when the Georgia Supreme Court took a look at his case in 2006, they ruled he hadn't been properly advised of his rights and overturned his conviction.

Johnson got a second chance, but Houston County district attorney Kelly Burke doubled down, re-indicting Johnson on a new murder charge for that old 1984 crime. This time, court records show, he sought the death penalty.

But in the 2013 retrial, some evidence from the case's first go-around couldn't be presented because it had been destroyed and some witnesses could not be located. Johnson's friends, and the victim's family waited, on edge for a verdict.

The jury's decision? Innocent on all charges.

After nearly 30 years, Johnson was finally a free man, able to celebrate with the friends who stuck with him through it all.

"This thing has been going on for 29 years and finally God brought it to a closure," said one of his supporters.

But what really happened here? Did Johnson escape on a technicality and get away with murder? After all, he initially plead guilty.

Or did something else happen, decades ago, that changed his life forever?

"They drove me out to a bridge somewhere out in [Highway] 96, I believe, and they dangled me," said Johnson in 2015. "There was about 4 officers that was holding me and another officer that I believe was a detective."

In that 2015 federal lawsuit naming more than a dozen Houston County defendants, Johnson alleges after getting arrested in 1984, he was driven to a bridge where "unknown law enforcement officers" dangled him over the side, telling him to fess up or else.

According to federal court documents, Johnson never confessed but later did plead guilty in exchange for the district attorney dropping the death penalty.

But that same federal judge noted that Johnson never said anything about the bridge incident before 2015 and dismissed that claim and most others in his suit for a number of legal technicalities, including an expired statute of limitations.

The judge also dismissed most of the defendants, but four years after the suit was filed, the case is still alive.

One defendant remains: Johnson's former jailer Margaret Hays. 

Now, it's up to a jury of their peers to find the truth. The issue before them? Whether that Houston County deputy violated Johnson's constitutional rights by keeping him in administrative segregation for more years while he was incarcerated at the Houston County jail.

According to federal appellate court judges, Houston County Sheriff's Office sergeant Margaret Hays oversaw inmate classification for some of the years while Johnson was an inmate at the Houston County jail awaiting his 2013 re-trial.

Johnson alleges that Hays decided to permanently assign him to administrative segregation, where federal appellate court judges said Johnson "was confined to a cell where he could communicate with other inmates only through the vent. He could exit his cell only to shower and occasionally attend 30-minute yard calls."

A federal district court judge notes Johnson was also on the workforce, served meals, and was allowed visitors.

All in all, though, Johnson's attorney, Zahra Karinshak says putting him in those conditions violated his right to due process.

She thinks that should be punished.

"I have talked to dozens of folks in all areas of law and they've all shared the same sentiment with me and that's shock and amazement," said Karinshak in 2015.

Despite repeated calls and emails asking for a fresh comment on this story, no one from Johnson's legal team responded to our requests.

Hays' lawyer declined to comment on the case when we reached him by phone.

The Houston County Sheriff's Office also declined to comment on the case until litigation is wrapped up.