(Washington) Best-selling American author Alice Sebold on Tuesday apologized to a man she had mistakenly accused of raping her, the man having spent 16 years in prison before being definitively cleared the week last.
“I want to say to Anthony Broadwater: I am so sorry and I deeply regret what you have gone through,” wrote Alice Sebold in a post on the Medium site.
Convicted in 1982 when he never ceased to proclaim his innocence, Anthony Broadwater, 61 years old today, spent 16 years in prison before being released in 1998.
PHOTO KATRINA TULLOCH, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Anthony Broadwater (center)
In his memoirs entitled Lucky and published in 1999, Alice Sebold recounts having been raped in 1981 on the campus of Syracuse University, in New York State, where she was studying, and having reported the assault to the police.
Anthony Broadwater was arrested five months later after crossing Alice Sebold in the street who, believing to have recognized her attacker, had alerted the police.
“I am especially sorry for the fact that the life you could have led has been unfairly stolen from you, and I know that no apology can nor will ever be able to change what happened to you”, continues the author known in particular for Nostalgia for the angel.
“I am grateful that Mr. Broadwater was ultimately cleared, but the point is that 40 years ago he became another young black man abused by our broken justice system,” she argues.
Anthony Broadwater was exonerated on November 23 by the New York State Supreme Court.
According to New York Times, his lawyers, who had worked in recent years to have his innocence recognized, argued that the guilty verdict had rested only on the fact that Alice Sebold had recognized Mr. Broadwater as his attacker and on a technique of criminal identification today discredited.
“I just hope and pray that maybe Mme Sebold will declare “I made a serious mistake” and will apologize to me, ”said Anthony Broadwater, quoted last week by the American daily.
“I sympathize with her. But she was wrong, ”he added.