CLEVELAND — After more than two decades maintaining his innocence, John Thompson sat in a Cuyahoga County courtroom Friday and heard prosecutors dismiss the rape charges he'd sat behind bars for since his September 2000 arrest.
"The alleged victim in this matter has issued a recantation of the facts that this victim had testified earlier to," said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Gregory Mussman.
An appeals court overturned Thompson's conviction last month, paving the way for the decision to drop the charges.
In February 2001, Thompson was convicted on three counts of raping a seven-year-old boy and sentenced to three life terms in prison.
Family members never believed the allegations.
"I didn't want to see my brother die in prison knowing that he didn't do anything," said Thompson's brother, Melvin King.
The break came when the victim, who is now grown, said it was actually another person who sexually assaulted him, then threatened the victim and told him to blame Thompson.
"He was only seven, he was scared," said Brenda Bickerstaff, who investigated the case for Thompson's family. "He thought something was going to happen to him and his mother, so he did what he was told to do."
King said he doesn't feel animosity toward his brother's accuser despite the time it cost Thompson behind bars.
"He was a kid, a scared kid," said King. "How could you have animosity towards somebody?"
Thompson's attorney, Rufus Sims, called Friday one of the best days of his long legal career.
"You don't always get these kinds of days down here," said Sims. "Lots of times, this is the black hole you enter, and you don't come out."
But late Friday, Thompson did just that, walking out of the jail a free man for the first time in 23 years.
"I have to take a minute to take it in right now," said Thompson as he was surrounded by family and supporters. "It just feels so good to be free."
But he said his work is not over.
"I still got to fight for the brothers that can't fight for themselves," said Thompson. "It goes on."
Sims expects Thompson will file to be declared a wrongfully imprisoned person.
That would make him eligible for payments from the state for each year he spent in prison.
