A man jailed for kidnapping and raping a nine-year-old boy was cleared by DNA evidence today after spending a record 35 years in American jails.
James Bain (54), was 19 when he was sentenced and has served more time than any of the 245 others previously exonerated by DNA evidence across the country.
“Nothing can replace the years Jamie has lost,” said Seth Miller, a lawyer for the Innocence Project of Florida group which helped Mr Bain win freedom.
“Today is a day of renewal.”
Mr Bain made his first-ever mobile phone call today to tell his elderly mother he had been freed.
Mobile phones did not exist in 1974, the year he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a nine-year-old boy and raping him in a nearby field. Neither did the sophisticated DNA testing that officials more recently used to determine he could not have been the rapist.
As Mr Bain walked out of the court in Polk County wearing a black T-shirt that said “not guilty,” he spoke of his deep faith and said he did not harbour any anger.
“No, I’m not angry,” he said. “Because I’ve got God.”
He said he looked forward to eating fried turkey and drinking a can of pop. He said he also hoped to go back to school.
Friends and family surrounded him as he left the court after Judge James Yancey ordered him freed.
His 77-year-old mother, who is ill, preferred to wait for him at home. With a broad smile, he said he looks forward to spending time with her and the rest of his family.
“That’s the most important thing in my life right now, besides God,” he said.
Earlier, the courtroom erupted in applause after Judge Yancey ruled: “Mr Bain, I’m now signing the order. You’re a free man. Congratulations.”
The Innocence Project of Florida got involved in Mr Bain’s case earlier this year after he filed several previous petitions asking for DNA testing, all of which were thrown out.
A judge finally ordered the tests and the results from a respected private lab in Cincinnati came in last week, setting the wheels in motion for today’s hearing.
He was convicted largely on the strength of the victim’s eyewitness identification, even though testing available at the time did not definitively link him to the crime.
The boy said his attacker had bushy sideburns and a moustache. The boy’s uncle, a former assistant principal at a high school, said it sounded like Mr Bain, a former student.
The boy picked Mr Bain out of a photo lineup, although there are lingering questions about whether detectives steered him.
The jury rejected Mr Bain’s story that he was home watching TV with his twin sister when the crime was committed, an alibi she repeated at a news conference last week.
AP