Man Jailed For 29 Years For 'Resembling' Serial Rapist

by Reagan Ali
Counter Current News
May. 15, 2015

He was locked up for almost three decades for crimes he did not commit. But now a Virginia man is finally free after DNA tests exonerated him completely.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe just issued a complete and absolute pardon to Michael McAlister, 58.

“My staff and I have carefully and thoroughly reviewed the documentation in this case and concluded that a pardon is appropriate in light of the overwhelming evidence, including a recent confession by another individual, pointing to Mr. McAlister’s actual innocence of the crime for which he was convicted,” McAuliffe stated on Wednesday.

“I’m overwhelmed with everything,” McAlister stated in a news conference shortly after the announcement.

McAlister had been convicted of a rape back in 1986. But recently a convicted serial rapist, Norman Bruce Derr, confessed to the crime.

McAuliffe's spokesman, Brian Coy says that Derr looked nearly identical to McAlister when the rape occurred.

McAlister has been convicted when the victim picked his photograph from a police lineup.

Derr was not included in that lineup.

“We’re thrilled the governor did the right thing,” Shawn Armbrust said. Armbrust is from of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which is responsible for clearing McAlister’s name.

"He’s giving Mike the freedom he’s deserved for so long," Armbrust said to the Associated Press.

C.M. Martin, The detective who arrested McAlister, C.M. Martin, even had doubts over the years.

Back in 2014, Martin said in an affidavit, that “in the years since Mr. McAlister's conviction, I have become convinced that he did not commit the crime for which he is incarcerated and that he was simply misidentified by the victim.”

How many more just like him do you think there are still behind bars?














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