DNA frees man of ’85 rape, burglary conviction

updated 8:37 p.m. ET April 16, 2008

DALLAS - A man who spent nearly 23 years in prison in Texas for a rape and burglary he did not commit was set free Wednesday.

A judge overturned the convictions of 49-year-old Thomas Clifford McGowan. He was convicted for a crime that took place in 1985 and got life sentences on both the rape and burglary counts.

Lawyers said he was convicted largely on eyewitness misidentification by the victim. Now a DNA test has shown that McGowan could not have been the man who committed the rape.

McGowan became the 17th man since 2001 whose Dallas County conviction has been overturned on DNA evidence, more than any other county in the nation.

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