After 35 years, freedom in sight for Florida man exonerated by DNA evidence

After more than three decades in prison, James Bain , 54, will be allowed to go home for the first time in 35 years -- free from his life sentence thanks to a DNA test that showed he was not the man who took a 9-year-old Lake Wales, Florida, boy from his bed in 1974 and raped him.

Of the 245 people in the United States who have been exonerated by DNA testing, none has spent more time behind bars than Bain, according to the Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing.

Yet another example offering support to abolish the death penalty. Mistakes happen.


Join the Conversation

Send your thoughts and reactions to Letters to the Editor. Learn more here

Advertisement