Man freed after 29years of wrongful imprisonment for rape

Patrick Brown was released from a Louisiana prison on Monday, nearly 30 years after being wrongly convicted of raping his six-year-old stepdaughter.

Brown, now 49, was sentenced to life without parole in 1994 for the sexual assault.

However, his accuser revealed in 2002, three years after that Brown was not her attacker and appealed for his case to be reviewed.

Her pleas were ignored for years until recently when the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office asked a court to vacate Brown's conviction.

On Monday, Judge Calvin Johnson presided over a hearing and ordered Brown's release. He had already served 29 years of his unjust sentence.

"It is incredibly disheartening to know that this woman was dismissed and ignored, no matter how inconvenient her truth when all she wanted was the real offender to be held responsible," District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement.

The accuser, now 35, did not testify at Brown's original trial. She has insisted for nearly two decades that Brown was wrongly convicted, but her calls for justice fell on deaf ears until Williams took office this year.

"When someone is wrongfully convicted, not only is it an injustice for the person who has years of their life stolen, but it is an injustice for the victim and the people of New Orleans because the real perpetrator is left to harm others," Williams said.