Innocent man freed from jail after 29 years

Patrick Brown, 49, is free after spending 29 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

He was given his freedom papers by the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on Monday, May 8.

Mr Brown was convicted of the rape of his 6-year-old stepdaughter in 1994. At the time the young child did not testify, but other adults testified as to what was believed the victim has said.

The victim, who is now a young woman had always protested the innocence of Mr Brown. She said over the years she had written over one hundred letters to prosecutors and court officials in the hope that the real perpetrator of the crime (another family member) would be punished.

Civil Rights Division Chief, Emily Maw said the case had presented “multiple injustices” She went on to say that not only had an innocent man been in jail for 29 years, but the victim had to live with the trauma of what had happened to her while at the same time knowing that the rightful perpetrator had not been brought to justice.

Chief Maw wrote, “This is a case of finally listening to a woman who for over twenty years has been telling the state that the wrong man is in prison.”

The woman thanked the Judge for “listening” and giving her “her dad back” When the Judge’s decision was read out the woman fell to her knees before getting up and embracing her stepfather.