Best-selling author Alice Sebold, known for her memoir Lucky as well as novels The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon, apologized Tuesday to the man she wrongly accused of raping her in 1981 while she was a freshman at Syracuse University.
In a post published on Medium, Sebold said she was “truly sorry” for the charge that left Anthony Broadwater, a Black man, behind bars for 16 years, but nimbly avoided her part in the travesty. She instead indicted 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," Sebold wrote.
"I will remain sorry for the rest of my life that while pursuing justice through the legal system, my own misfortune resulted in Mr. Broadwater’s unfair conviction for which he has served not only 16 years behind bars but in ways that further serve to wound and stigmatize, nearly a full life sentence," her post in Medium reads.
Prior to Sebold’s public apology, Broadwater told The New York Times he hoped for her to tell him she was sorry but although he sympathized with her, he added, “she was wrong.”
After Sebold’s piece was published, Broadwater responded with a statement saying he felt “relieved that [Sebold] has apologized.”
“It must have taken a lot of courage for her to do that,” he said. “It’s still painful to me because I was wrongfully convicted, but this will help me in my process to come to peace with what happened.”
Broadwater was convicted in 1982 after Sebold, 58, who is white, first reported spotting him on the street months after the assault.
“He was smiling as he approached. He recognized me. It was a stroll in the park to him; he had met an acquaintance on the street,” she wrote in Lucky. “‘Hey, girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’”
Sebold wrote she didn’t respond but looked directly at him and knew “his face had been the face over me in the tunnel,” where she’d been assaulted.
She reported seeing the man (Broadwater) to the police, who located Broadwater and concluded he must be the perpetrator. Sebold later identified Broadwater in court as her attacker, even after failing to identify him in a police lineup. He was connected to the crime by microscopic hair analysis, something that’s since been declared to be wholly unreliable by the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Nov. 25, Broadwater's conviction was overturned after an inquiry into the 1982 trial led a judge to conclude there were serious flaws in the evidence.
During Broadwater’s hearing, the Onondaga County district attorney told the judge, “I’m not going to sully this proceeding by saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ That doesn’t cut it. This should never have happened.”
Sebold’s popular memoir Lucky sold over 1 million copies and launched her writing career. Her novel The Lovely Bones was directed by famed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
Tuesday, Lucky publisher Scribner announced that, following Broadwater’s exoneration, distribution of all formats of the book would cease “while Sebold and Scribner together consider how the work might be revised.”
Broadwater’s exoneration came from an unlikely place. While Lucky was in production for a film adaptation, producer Timothy Mucciante noticed discrepancies in Sebold’s version of the events compared with the criminal case file. He quit the film and hired a private investigator to look into the case. He became passionate that Broadwater was innocent.
“I started having some doubts, not about the story that Alice told about her assault, which was tragic, but the second part of her book about the trial, which didn’t hang together,” Mucciante told the Los Angeles Times.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the private investigator suggested taking what they’d found to an attorney, David Hammond, who ended up representing Broadwater in court along with defense attorney Melissa K. Swartz.
"I read Alice's apology and Anthony was very gracious in accepting that apology and I really applaud him for that. That's the kind of person he is," Mucciante told the BBC.
In a post published on Medium, Sebold said she was “truly sorry” for the charge that left Anthony Broadwater, a Black man, behind bars for 16 years, but nimbly avoided her part in the travesty. She instead indicted 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," Sebold wrote.
"I will remain sorry for the rest of my life that while pursuing justice through the legal system, my own misfortune resulted in Mr. Broadwater’s unfair conviction for which he has served not only 16 years behind bars but in ways that further serve to wound and stigmatize, nearly a full life sentence," her post in Medium reads.
Prior to Sebold’s public apology, Broadwater told The New York Times he hoped for her to tell him she was sorry but although he sympathized with her, he added, “she was wrong.”
After Sebold’s piece was published, Broadwater responded with a statement saying he felt “relieved that [Sebold] has apologized.”
“It must have taken a lot of courage for her to do that,” he said. “It’s still painful to me because I was wrongfully convicted, but this will help me in my process to come to peace with what happened.”
Broadwater was convicted in 1982 after Sebold, 58, who is white, first reported spotting him on the street months after the assault.
“He was smiling as he approached. He recognized me. It was a stroll in the park to him; he had met an acquaintance on the street,” she wrote in Lucky. “‘Hey, girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’”
Sebold wrote she didn’t respond but looked directly at him and knew “his face had been the face over me in the tunnel,” where she’d been assaulted.
She reported seeing the man (Broadwater) to the police, who located Broadwater and concluded he must be the perpetrator. Sebold later identified Broadwater in court as her attacker, even after failing to identify him in a police lineup. He was connected to the crime by microscopic hair analysis, something that’s since been declared to be wholly unreliable by the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Nov. 25, Broadwater's conviction was overturned after an inquiry into the 1982 trial led a judge to conclude there were serious flaws in the evidence.
During Broadwater’s hearing, the Onondaga County district attorney told the judge, “I’m not going to sully this proceeding by saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ That doesn’t cut it. This should never have happened.”
Sebold’s popular memoir Lucky sold over 1 million copies and launched her writing career. Her novel The Lovely Bones was directed by famed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
Tuesday, Lucky publisher Scribner announced that, following Broadwater’s exoneration, distribution of all formats of the book would cease “while Sebold and Scribner together consider how the work might be revised.”
Broadwater’s exoneration came from an unlikely place. While Lucky was in production for a film adaptation, producer Timothy Mucciante noticed discrepancies in Sebold’s version of the events compared with the criminal case file. He quit the film and hired a private investigator to look into the case. He became passionate that Broadwater was innocent.
“I started having some doubts, not about the story that Alice told about her assault, which was tragic, but the second part of her book about the trial, which didn’t hang together,” Mucciante told the Los Angeles Times.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the private investigator suggested taking what they’d found to an attorney, David Hammond, who ended up representing Broadwater in court along with defense attorney Melissa K. Swartz.
"I read Alice's apology and Anthony was very gracious in accepting that apology and I really applaud him for that. That's the kind of person he is," Mucciante told the BBC.