Alice Sebold apologizes to man cleared of 1981 rape featured in her memoir

The author Alice Sebold apologized on Tuesday to the man who was exonerated last week of the 1981 rape that was the basis for her memoir Lucky.

Anthony Broadwater, 61, was convicted in 1982 of raping Sebold when she was a student at Syracuse University. He served 16 years in prison. His conviction was overturned on 22 November after prosecutors re-examined the case and determined there were serious flaws in his arrest and trial.

Melissa Swartz, an attorney for Broadwater, said he had no comment.

In 1999, Sebold wrote in Lucky of being raped and then spotting a Black man in the street several months later who she believed was her attacker.

Sebold, who is white, went to police. An officer said the man in the street must have been Broadwater, who had supposedly been seen in the area.

Prosecutors put Broadwater on trial anyway. He was convicted based largely on Sebold identifying him as her rapist on the witness stand and testimony that microscopic hair analysis had tied him to the crime. That type of analysis has since been deemed junk science by the US Department of Justice.