GRETNA, Louisiana — A 25-year-old man whose life sentence for murder was overturned after eight years in prison was released to an aunt’s custody yesterday.“I’m the world’s happiest man,” Travis Hayes said.

Hayes is the sixth person proven to have been wrongfully convicted as a juvenile since 1989 in Louisiana, making it the state with the highest rate of such convictions, said Shannon Wight, head of the Innocence Project New Orleans’s juvenile section. The national project uses DNA evidence to free inmates who claim wrongful convictions.

In his decision Tuesday, Judge Henry Sullivan said he was not declaring Hayes, who had been convicted as the getaway driver in a deadly holdup, innocent.

“The question is whether or not a reasonable juror would have convicted Hayes if this evidence had been presented at the trial,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Hayes cannot leave his aunt’s house, or even step into her yard or onto her porch.

“It’s better than sitting in a cell,” said Hayes.

Hayes was greeted Wednesday by Ryan Matthews, who had been on death row as the gunman in the 1997 murder until his conviction was overturned on DNA evidence almost 2 [1/2] years ago. DNA on a ski mask thrown away by the killer matched another man’s DNA profile.

Hayes had been arrested less than three weeks after his 17th birthday in 1997. After seven hours of questioning, he told deputies he had been Matthews’ getaway driver.

Hayes later said the confession was a coerced lie.

No scientific evidence linked Hayes to the murder scene.

Assistant District Attorney David Wolf has 30 days to appeal.