American author Alice Sebold apologizes for accusing a man who was finally cleared of rape

Best-selling American author Alice Sebold on Tuesday 30 November apologized to a man she had mistakenly accused of raping her, the man having spent 16 years in prison before being definitively cleared last week .

wrote Alice Sebold in a post on the Medium site.

Convicted in 1982 when he kept proclaiming his innocence, Anthony Broadwater, 61 today, spent 16 years in prison before being released in 1998.

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In her memoir titled

and published in 1999, Alice Sebold recounts being raped in 1981 on the Syracuse University campus in New York State, where she was studying, and reporting the assault to the police. Anthony Broadwater was arrested five months later after crossing Alice Sebold in the street who, believing to have recognized her attacker, had alerted the police.

, continues the author known in particular for

.

"I am grateful that Mr. Broadwater was ultimately cleared but the point is that 40 years ago he became another young black man abused by our broken justice system

,

she argues.

Anthony Broadwater was exonerated on November 23 by the New York State Supreme Court.

According to the

, his lawyers, who had worked in recent years to have his innocence recognized, argued that the guilty verdict had rested only on the fact that Alice Sebold had recognized Anthony Broadwater as his attacker and on a technique of criminal identification today discredited.

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"I just hope and pray that perhaps Mrs. Sebold will declare

" I made a serious mistake "

,

said Anthony Broadwater, quoted last week by the American daily.

he added.