Man freed after 27 years
HOUSTON, Texas – Imprisoned for 27 years for a rape he didn’t commit, Michael Anthony Green walked out of jail a free man yesterday and in the process was able to leave behind some of the anger that had fuelled his survival behind bars.Accompanied by his attorney, Green walked out of jail and into the arms of about 20 family members who cheered him.“Live life,” Green said, when asked what he is going to do now.Green, 44, was released after the Harris County District Attorney’s Office reopened his case and new DNA tests it commissioned showed he did not commit the 1983 rape of a woman who had been abducted. During a court hearing yesterday, a judge ordered that Green be released on a US$500 bond, allowing him to be free while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals makes a final ruling on his innocence.Asked what kept him going the last 27 years, Green said that in part it was his anger. “I took and channelled my anger into studying the law,” said Green, clutching a photograph of his mother who died while he was in prison. “That’s how I lived, day by day . . . doing what I did. Get up in the law, try to find me a way out.” (AP)
