Two black men freed after 26 years in prison after "victim" admits lying about rape

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After 26 years, two men have been exonerated of a gang-rape that the alleged victim now admits never happened.

The 1992 convictions of VanDyke Perry and Gregory Counts for rape, sodomy and kidnapping were vacated in New York court Monday. Prosecutors had joined attorneys for Perry and Counts on a motion asking a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan to vacate the convictions because of new DNA evidence and the woman's revised story.

"It is every prosecutor’s nightmare to convict an innocent person," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement. "This case is a tragedy for all involved — two New Yorkers were wrongfully deprived of their liberty during the prime of their lives for a crime they did not commit. This time can never be returned to them, but with today’s exoneration, we hope we can begin the process of unburdening them and giving them a chance at a brighter, successful future."

Perry was 21 and Counts 19 at the time of their arrests in 1991. Perry was released in 2001 after 11 years in prison and Counts was released in August 2017 after 26 years. A third alleged attacker was never arrested.

The alleged victim said she was forced into a vehicle at knifepoint near a subway station in Queens. She said Perry and Counts — whom she already knew and who dealt drugs with her boyfriend — raped her along with a third man multiple times in the car and in Central Park when she refused to tell them where her boyfriend was.

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Eventually, additional evidence and new interviews led the woman to admit that the rape "never happened." Sherecanted her testimony and said her boyfriend hadpressured her to falsely accuse Perry and Counts, the district attorney'soffice said. 

The woman won't face charges because the statute of limitations has expired, theAssociated Press reported. 

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