There were mixed reactions in Louisiana, in the Southeastern part of the United States of America, on Monday after a man, Patrick Brown, was released from prison after spending 29 years behind bars over an alleged rape.
OsunDaily News learnt that the now 49-year-old man was accused of a rape he didn’t commit in 1994 and was wrongly convicted to serve life imprisonment without parole.
Brown was accused of raping his then-six-year-old stepdaughter, a crime he never committed.
The Guardian revealed in its report that the sexual assault survivor did not testify at Brown’s trial and, beginning in 2002. She was said to have repeatedly asked for the case to be reviewed, testifying that Brown was not her real attacker.
The case, however, was swept under the rugs and not investigated again until recent years.
In the recent rewind of the case, Orleans Parish District Attorney, Jason Williams, 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.
It was, however, unclear whether the accuser was charged for her wrong claims earlier that made Brown serve almost three decades behind bars.
