Posted on December 1, 2021 at 7:48 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Author Alice Sebold has apologized — and shared it publicly — to the man exonerated in her 1981 rape.
Anthony Broadwater was convicted in 1982 of the assault, based on Sebold’s identification and a now-discredited method of analyzing hair.
He served sixteen years in prison, maintaining his innocence, and was formally exonerated November 22.
In the meantime, Sebold wrote two books — the memoir Lucky and the novel The Lovely Bones — that both centered on sexual assaults; the former was pulled from publication Tuesday.
On Tuesday, she apologized to Broadwater, stating that she had only sought justice but realizes that an injustice was done as a result.
“I am sorry most of all for the fact that the life you could have led was unjustly robbed from you, and I know that no apology can change what happened to you and never will,” she wrote, according to the Associated Press.
Broadwater replied, in a statement released by his lawyers, that he was relieved by her apology.
“It must have taken a lot of courage for her to do that,” he said.
“It’s still painful to me because I was wrongfully convicted, but this will help me in my process to come to peace with what happened.”
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Categories: Today in Books