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Im bitter, Im angry said black man accused of rape

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DALLAS, TX – Dressed neatly in a dark blue jacket and checkered tie, Charles Chatman stood nervously on Thursday as he waited to hear the verdict from District Judge John Creuzot in a Dallas County courtroom.
Accused of rape 27 years ago, Chatman, 47, had pleaded his case before a parole board three times and three times he had professed his innocence.
Chatman was visibly moved when District Judge John Creuzot announced that Chatman would be released from prison because new DNA evidence proved that he was not the rapist.  
“Everytime I’d go to parole, they’d want a description of the crime or my version of the crime,” Chatman told news reporters. “I don’t have a version of the crime. I never committed the crime. I never will admit to doing this crime that I know I didn’t do.”
Creuzat had pushed for the specialized DNA test that cleared Chatman after becoming concerned that he might be innocent.
On Thursday, Creuzat signed documents that accepted the DNA results, released Chatman on a personal bond, declared him to be innocent of the rape and recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirm that judgment.
After the judge announced that he was a free man, Chatman appeared shocked and clasped his hand over his mouth in a look of disbelief. But the released man indicated that he would never forget the decades he had spent behind bars.
“I’m bitter, I’m angry,” Chatman told The Associated Press during his last night in jail Wednesday. “But I’m not angry or bitter to the point where I want to hurt anyone or get revenge.”
Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. He had served more time than any other inmate incarcerated for rape in Texas. Dallas has freed more inmates after DNA testing than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas.
Chatman was 20 years old when he was placed in a lineup and a young woman in her 20s singled him out and said that he had raped her. Chatman, who had never met the woman, was not aware that he lived five houses down from the victim in the Oak Cliff home for 13 years.
Serology tests showed that the type of blood found at the crime scene matched Chatman’s, as well as 40 percent of other black males.
Despite the fact that Chatman said he was at his job when the attack occurred, an alibi supported by his sister, who was also his employer, Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1981 and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Chatman believes his race played a part in his conviction. “I was convicted because a black man committed a crime against a white woman,” Chatman said. “And I was available.”
The victim who accused Chatman of the rape is now 77 years old and living in a nursing home. Prosecutors said she had little reaction when told Wednesday that the man she accused had been cleared.
District Attorney Craig Watkins attributes the exonerations to a past culture of overly aggressive prosecutors seeking convictions at any cost. Watkins has started a program in which law students, supervised by the Innocence Project of Texas, are reviewing about 450 cases in which convicts have requested DNA testing to prove their innocence.
The large number of exonerations is directly attributable to the crime lab used by Dallas County, which accounts for about half of the state’s DNA cases. The lab retains biological evidence, meaning that DNA testing is still available for decades-old crimes.
Several of Chatman’s relatives cried and cheers filled the standing-room-ony courtroom after the verdict was read.
Chatman said that as a free man, his only plan was to get something “good to eat.”
Chatman told news reporters that he plans to work with the Innocence Project of Texas to support other people exonerated or wrongly convicted.
“I believe that there are hundreds, and I know of two or three personally that very well could be sitting in this seat if they had the support and they had the backing that I have,” Chatman said. “My number one interest is trying to help people who have been in the situation I am in.”

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