Ohio man is officially exonerated

After serving 17 years in Ohio prison for a rape he didn’t commit, Robert McClendon was released August 11 due to DNA evidence of his innocence. This morning, he appeared again in a Columbus courtroom, as a judge dismissed charges pending against him. He was also declared a “wrongfully imprisoned person” – making him eligible for compensation under

Ohio law

, and the judge moved to expunge his record immediately.

"It's sweet. It's very sweet," McClendon said. "It's been a long time coming. I've been fighting for a long time. It gives a lot of people in your corner validation."

Read the full story here

. (NBC 4, Columbus)

McClendon is the 220th person exonerated by DNA evidence in the United States, and the

seventh in Ohio

.

Testing in his case was obtained as part of a

joint project between the Columbus Dispatch and the Ohio Innocence Project

. An Ohio lab provided DNA testing pro bono.