Three times during his nearly 27 years in prison, Charles Chatman went before a parole board and refused to admit he was a rapist. His steadfastness was vindicated Thursday, when a judge released him because of new DNA evidence showing he indeed wasn’t. The release of Chatman, 47, added to Dallas County’s nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.

“Every time I’d go to parole, they’d want a description of the crime or my version of the crime,” Chatman said. “I don’t have a version of the crime. I never committed the crime. I never will admit to doing this crime that I know I didn’t do.”

Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. He served more time than any of the other inmates, four of whom were in court Thursday to show their support.

Dallas has freed more inmates after DNA testing than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas. Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing, releasing at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project.

Chatman was 20 when the victim, a young woman in her 20s, picked him from a lineup. Chatman said he lived five houses down from the victim for 13 years but never knew her.

She identified him in court as the attacker, and serology tests showed that the type of blood found at the crime scene matched that of Chatman—along with 40 percent of other black males.

Chatman said he was working at the time of the assault, an alibi supported by his sister, who was also his employer. Nevertheless, Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault in 1981 and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Mr. Chatman must be an incredibly strong person psychologically, and emotionally because I cannot even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be sent to prison for something you didn’t do.

The man has been incarcerated for more than 26 years!! How do you even begin to right a wrong of that magnitude? More than two decades were stolen from Mr. Chatman that he can never get back.

I think for starters he should get around $2 million dollars for every year he was in prison, which would give him a nice settlement of around $52 million dollars.

Money won’t even begin to make up for losing so many years, but at least he can spend the next 26 years living the good life and spending time with his family.

It’s so important that we revisit old cases where DNA testing is now possible to determine with absolute certainty that an innocent person is not rotting in prison.

-Chris Jones