New York Man to File Civil Suit Three Decades After Wrongful Conviction

Johnnie O’Neal has been out of prison for nearly a decade but he wasn’t cleared of the rape conviction that put him there until last month. Now that he has been exonerated, O’Neal plans to sue the city after 14 years of wrongful imprisonment.

Despite an alibi from several relatives and inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony, O’Neal was convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint on a Manhattan rooftop in 1984.

The Legal Aid Society and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance started to review O’Neal’s case five years ago and ultimately found evidence that pointed toward his innocence and implicated another man, Gregory Smith, who likely committed the rape and two others.

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