[ad_1] C. J. Rice was first arraigned in 2011 on the 11th floor of 1301 Filbert Street, a towering, steel-framed criminal-court complex two miles from the South Philadelphia neighborhood where he’d grown up. In 2013, on the fifth floor of the same building, Rice was tried on four counts of attempted murder, found guilty, and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. For three years, he appealed the sentence, appearing on the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. After each attempt failed, he was shuttled back to a state prison in rural Coal Township, Pennsylvania. This morning, on the eighth floor, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced that it no longer considers Rice a viable suspect in the shooting for which he had been found guilty. His conviction had already been overturned by a federal court in November, on the grounds that his attorney had been constitutionally deficient. In today’s decision, the D.A.’s office formally dismissed the charges against him. The D.A.’s decision fully exonerates Rice. He is now a free man. He …