KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A 49-year-old Kansas City man convicted in a 1983 rape is out of prison after DNA testing exonerated him and implicated another man.
The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/12uCmyW) reports Robert E. Nelson was freed Wednesday from Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, where he was serving a 70-year sentence. But the Jackson County prosecutor and officials of the Midwest Innocence Project withheld the announcement until Friday, after the new suspect was arrested.
Nelson had twice been denied DNA testing. But prosecutors began testing all evidence from the crime in 2011, hoping to find an alleged accomplice. Last year, the Midwest Innocence Project took Nelson's case and spent more than $40,000 for tests by a private lab.
Nelson began serving the 70-year rape sentence in 2006, after finishing earlier sentences for robbery.