A Louisiana man walked free after spending nearly three decades behind bars for a rape the victim herself insisted he did not commit. Patrick Brown was convicted in 1994 of aggravated rape in a case involving his 6-year-old stepdaughter, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office in Louisiana said. The sexual assault survivor did not testify at Brown’s trial and, beginning in 2002, she repeatedly asked for the case to be reviewed, insisting Brown wasn’t her attacker. However, the district attorney’s office said that the case was not investigated again until recent years.
According to a statement from the Orleans Parish District Attorney, Brown’s conviction was based on adults testifying “to what they believed she had said.” District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement that the now-adult woman has remained steadfast for over 20 years that Brown is innocent “and the evidence corroborated the victim’s account … Listening and engaging victims and survivors of sexual assault is a top priority in this office. 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.” Williams added: “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 did not provide details on the exonerating evidence.
The district attorney’s office asked the court to vacate Brown’s conviction, and Judge Calvin Johnson presided over a hearing Monday, after which Brown was released. Prosecutors have not shared details regarding the man whom the woman says raped her as a child. District Attorney Williams said the state is “actively reviewing the viability charges against the actual perpetrator…but to say more on that at this time would not be prudent as it could jeopardize the case.”
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