A Louisiana man, Patrick Brown, breathed the air of freedom on Monday as he was released from prison after spending 29 years behind bars for a rape he didn’t commit.
Brown, 49, was convicted in 1994 of raping his then six-year-old stepdaughter and was sentenced to life without parole.
According to The Guardian on Tuesday, it was disclosed that the sexual assault survivor did not testify at Brown’s trial and, beginning in 2002, she repeatedly asked for the case to be reviewed, insisting Brown wasn’t her attacker, but the case was not investigated again until recent years.
Orleans Parish District Attorney, Jason Williams, in a statement, said, “It is incredibly disheartening to know that this woman was dismissed and ignored, no matter how inconvenient her truth, when all she wanted was the real offender to be held responsible.
“When someone is wrongfully convicted, not only is it an injustice for the person who has years of their life stolen, but it is an injustice for the victim and the people of New Orleans because the real perpetrator is left to harm others.”
The office asked the court to vacate Brown’s conviction and Judge Calvin Johnson presided over a hearing on Monday, after which Brown was released.
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