Alice Sebold apologises to the man who was found not guilty of raping her

Alice Sebold, an American author, has apologised for her role in the unjust conviction of a man who was freed from prison last week for raping her in 1981.

She described being raped in her biography, Lucky, and afterwards telling police she had spotted a black man in the street who she assumed was her assailant. Anthony Broadwater was apprehended and found guilty, and he was sentenced to 16 years in jail.

In a statement posted through his attorneys, Mr Broadwater said he was “relieved that she had apologised.”

“I am sorry most of all for the fact that the life you may have led was cruelly robbed from you,” Ms Sebold said in her apology statement, “and I realise that no apology can and will ever restore what happened to you.”

When she was an 18-year-old student at Syracuse University in New York, she was attacked, according to her book. She claimed she spotted a black man in the street who she believed was her assailant months later and alerted authorities.

Mr Broadwater, who was apparently in the vicinity at the time, was then detained by an officer. Ms Sebold failed to recognise him in a police lineup after his arrest, instead choosing another man. Despite this, Mr Broadwater was tried and found guilty based on her testimony and microscopic hair analysis.

Mr Broadwater remained on the sex offenders list after his release from prison in 1998.

On November 22, he was exonerated after a re-examination of the case revealed that he had been convicted based on weak and now-discredited evidence. He told the Associated Press that he was shedding tears of joy and happiness after hearing the news.

According to Variety, “Lucky” sold over one million copies and began Ms Sebold’s career as an author. She went on to write The Lovely Bones, which Peter Jackson adapted into an Oscar-nominated picture…..