Connecticut exoneree tells students his story

James Tillman told a packed auditorium at Qunnipiac University last week that he just wanted to clear his name before he died.

“I just always wanted to say I’m not a rapist,” Tillman told the audience, as he recounted his wrongful rape conviction and his 16 years in Connecticut prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2006.

The jury, according to Tillman, was made up of upper middle class whites. Besides his mother, he said, he was the only African American in the court room."There were no blacks in my jury," Tillman said. "I felt that I should've had a cross section, but it didn't happen."

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