With his shackles finally off, a smiling but dazed-looking Bernard Webster walked out of court yesterday and into a world for which, after 20 years of wrongful imprisonment, he was stunningly ill-equipped.

When he stepped from the Baltimore County Courts Building in Towson and waved to the television cameras, the defense attorneys who had proved his innocence were trying to figure out where Webster, who has no surviving family, no job, no money and no home, would sleep during his first night of freedom.

Webster, 40, is not automatically entitled to government compensation, his attorneys said, though DNA tests now show he did not commit the rape in 1982 that he was sent to prison for. He would probably not win a civil lawsuit against the state since there was no prosecutorial wrongdoing during his case, they said.

Michele Nethercott, the attorney in charge of the public defender's Innocence Project that helped free Webster, said she thought Webster might be able to stay for a few days with a former foster sister. But because that woman lives in regulated housing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's assisted-living program, Webster would not be allowed to live with her for more than a week, Nethercott said.

"He's coming out today with essentially no money, no resources," she said.

Webster's life was transformed within the span of hours.

It was only Wednesday that the Baltimore man learned of prosecutors' concession that new DNA testing proved his innocence. It was only then he realized that within hours he would leave the Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown where he had spent adult life as inmate number 166605.

On Wednesday, correctional officers brought him to Baltimore County, where he spent the night. Yesterday morning, he walked into Circuit Judge Christian M. Kahl's courtroom. Although chains still connected his ankles, Webster knew he would be released.

In a quick court proceeding, Assistant State's Attorney John Cox conceded Webster's post-conviction request, which meant that he agreed to throw out the conviction. Then Cox asked the judge to order a new trial for Webster. The judge complied, and Cox immediately nol-prossed the case, which meant he essentially dropped all charges.

"Mr. Webster, there's nothing that anyone can say to justify what happened in this case," Kahl said. "I wish you luck."

Webster hugged Nethercott and attorney Patrick Kent and pointed to other attorneys sitting in the courtroom.

Denise M. Smith, a counselor who came to court at the request of the public defender's office, said she would do what she can to help Webster secure housing, items such as a Social Security card and a driver's license, and a job. But she and the attorneys said Webster will need much help.

He has a 10th-grade education. He never earned a General Educational Development high school diploma awarded after passing a test, and did not learn any marketable skills in prison. Recently, he was working in the prison kitchen. And he has been thrown into a world he has only imagined for the past 20 years.

"The primary emotion my client is experiencing is just overwhelming confusion," Nethercott said.

The last time Webster saw his hometown, Harborplace was 2 years old, Otterbein was a neighborhood of dollar houses and the World Series-caliber Orioles played their games at Memorial Stadium, as did the Baltimore Colts. In Towson, where he was arrested and where he left court today, there was no Towson Town Center mall and no traffic circle.

"Twenty years, everything has changed," Smith said. "To walk down the street will be amazing for him. It's like he's been in a bubble for 20 years."

Nethercott began working on Webster's case in 2000 after he asked the public defender's office for help in proving his innocence. Although Baltimore County police had destroyed all evidence from the daytime rape of a 47-year-old schoolteacher in Towson, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center had slides created from the victim's sexual assault examination.

Last month, after a year of logistical and legal hurdles, Nethercott received the results of DNA testing of those slides, which proved Webster could not have been the rapist.

After the state's attorney's office did its own testing, it confirmed Webster's innocence.

"I am so sorry it took so long to correct this injustice," said Deputy State's Attorney Steve Bailey at a news conference after Webster's release.

Webster was sentenced to 30 years' incarceration in 1983, but because of good conduct credits would have been released in February. He was denied parole several times, his attorneys said, in part because he refused to admit his guilt.

Public defenders Nethercott and Kent commended the state's attorney's office, saying that once they informed the office of the DNA results, prosecutors worked quickly to evaluate the situation and then to free Webster.

"John Cox did everything he said he'd do, and he made Herculean efforts to get our client released," Nethercott said.

"This case has turned a lot of people's worlds upside down," she continued. "I mean, even the lawyers. This case on the face of it was a very compelling case. It's really quite scary."

With his arm around his client's shoulder, Kent helped Webster push through the mob of cameras recording his first free walk in two decades. Webster had only one, quiet comment.

"I'm just happy to be out," he said.