New York: His freedom secured more than two decades after he was imprisoned for a rape he did not commit, Alan Newton described his plans: a home-cooked meal, a visit to the gave of his mother, who died about 10 years ago.
But Newton also offered his sympathy to the woman whose rape led to his wrongful conviction and time in prison until he was freed yesterday after being cleared by DNA evidence.
"My unjust conviction denied both of us justice," he said outside a Bronx Criminal Court, where a judge earlier signed the order declaring him a free man.
The non-profit Innocence Project and prosecutors from the Bronx district attorney's office had asked for Newton's 1985 conviction to be vacated based on recent testing on a rape kit used for the woman after the incident.
Newton, now 44, was convicted of raping the woman in an abandoned Bronx building in June 1984. He was sentenced in 1985 to up to 40 years in prison.
In 1994, he filed a motion asking that new DNA testing be conducted, but the request was denied because the evidence was unavailable, the Innocence Project and prosecutors wrote in papers filed to the court.
At the request of the Innocence Project, the district attorney's office last year asked the New York Police Department's property clerk division to search for the rape kit at an evidence warehouse in Queens.
Despite what Innocence Project lawyers and prosecutors said were earlier claims that it was lost or had been destroyed, officials found the kit, which was tested for DNA by two labs earlier this year. The tests cleared Newton.
Newton said he wanted to complete his bachelor degree and search out career options. He was a bank teller at the time of his arrest.
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