Author Alice Sebold issue an apology to the man falsely convicted of her 1981 rape as her memoir was pulled from publication.
In 1999, writer Alice Sebold launched a lucrative literary career with her memoir Lucky, which detailed her 1981 rape and the conviction of her supposed rapist.
Sixteen years Anthony Broadwater spent behind bars … for a rape he did not commit. Although he’s been out of prison for more than two decades, Broadwater was finally exonerated last week.
It was Sebold who put Broadwater in prison after she identified him in court as her rapist.
Eight days after his exoneration, Sebold issued an apology, and her publisher announced it was pulling the memoir.
“I am truly sorry to Anthony Broadwater, and I deeply regret what you have been through,” Sebold wrote in a Medium post.
“I am sorry most of all for the fact that the life you could have led was unjustly robbed from you, and I know that no apology can change what happened to you and never will,” she adds. “Of the many things I wish for you, I hope most of all that you and your family will be granted the time and privacy to heal.”
Then she writes this:
40 years ago, as a traumatized 18-year-old rape victim, I chose to put my faith in the American legal system. My goal in 1982 was justice — not to perpetuate injustice. And certainly not to forever, and irreparably, alter a young man’s life by the very crime that had altered mine.
I am grateful that Mr. Broadwater has finally been vindicated, but the fact remains that 40 years ago, he became another young Black man brutalized by our flawed legal system. I will forever be sorry for what was done to him.
Sorry, but it wasn’t The System that convicted this innocent man. It was you.
No one believes Sebold convicted an innocent man on purpose. Only a sociopath or a Kenosha prosecutor would try to do such a thing. But to turn her terrible mistake into an opportunity to ride the cause du jour is pretty grotesque.
What I also find interesting is how Broadwater was exonerated.
The plan had been to turn Lucky into a Netflix biopic. But one of the producers, a man named Tim Mucciante, looked at Sebold’s memoir and smelled a rat. He was so concerned, he hired a private investigator to look into the case. After that, he says, it didn’t take long to figure out the truth and then convince the courts of the truth.
For his part, Broadwater sounds like a good man. “It comes sincerely from her heart,” Mr. Broadwater said of the apology. “She knowingly admits what happened. I accept her apology. It was a big relief. It must have taken a lot of courage to come to terms and make that apology.”
Nevertheless, the false conviction never stopped haunting him, and not only because he’s had to register as a sex offender since his 1999 prison release:
Broadwater, who has worked as a trash hauler and a handyman in the years since his release from prison, told the AP that the rape conviction blighted his job prospects and his relationships with friends and family members.
Even after he married a woman who believed in his innocence, Broadwater never wanted to have children.
“We had a big argument sometimes about kids, and I told her I could never, ever allow kids to come into this world with a stigma on my back,” he said.
“I did everything that I could do to show people that hey, I am never that type of guy, I never could be that type of guy. A lot of doors have been slammed in my face for jobs,” he said.
Can you imagine? Can anyone even begin to imagine what this man has been through? And then, on top of it, he’s had to watch the case become famous through Sebold’s memoir.
How do you think he felt knowing Netflix was about to turn it into a movie?
We can’t forget that Sebold was raped as a young woman, which, like a false conviction, is something that never goes away. But we’ll hopefully continue to learn more about this story, especially about what it was in the memoir that tipped this producer off to the truth.
People need to be held accountable. There is no greater injustice than putting an innocent man in prison.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.