Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Johnnie Earl Lindsey, 56, sits in court with his son, Johnnie Cooper, who he says 'wasn't even 2 years old when I left' for prison. He plans to help others wrongly convicted.

For the first time in more than 25 years Friday, Johnnie Earl Lindsey embraced his son – and freedom.

"My son, he wasn't even 2 years old when I left," Mr. Lindsey said. "His name is Johnnie, but we call him J.J."

"Nah, it's just Jay," said 27-year-old Johnnie Cooper, his eyes red and wet with tears as he looked at the stranger he has been told is his father.

But more than a nickname has changed since Mr. Lindsey, 56, was wrongly imprisoned for a 1981 rape at White Rock Lake that DNA testing showed he did not commit.

The Internet, cellphone texting and other technological advancements will be foreign to the newly released man.

Wearing a black suit with a blue shirt and tie, Mr. Lindsey vowed to help other wrongly convicted people. Six other men stood behind him in the courtroom to show support. All had been previously cleared with DNA evidence.

Since 2001, when the Legislature began allowing post-conviction DNA testing, Mr. Lindsey is the 19th person from Dallas County cleared through DNA, the most in the nation.

"I have almost every clipping of exonerations from the paper, Jet magazine, Time," Mr. Lindsey said, naming some of the publications he posted on his cell wall. "I never dreamed there were that many going through circumstances like mine.

Helping others

"I'm going to try my best to help those who are left behind to see that they see justice, too," Mr. Lindsey told the packed courtroom after state District Judge Larry Mitchell thanked Mr. Lindsey for his perseverance and proclaimed him a free man.

Michelle Moore, Mr. Lindsey's attorney, said her client wrote the court six times trying to get someone to reconsider his case. Newly appointed Judge Mitchell received the last letter and chose Ms. Moore to help Mr. Lindsey. Ms. Moore is a board member of the Innocence Project, a legal group that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions.

"Once I got someone to listen to me, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be exonerated, because I am innocent," Mr. Lindsey said. "I just needed someone to listen to my story."

For years, no one did. Since his arrest in 1981, Mr. Lindsey flatly denied raping the 28-year-old woman near the lake. He went through two trials and several parole board hearings, all the while maintaining his innocence.The rape victim, who is not being identified because The Dallas Morning News does not name victims of sexual assault, could not be reached for comment.

Rape account

She told authorities that she was riding her bike on the south end of the lake when a man pulled her off the bike, threatened to hurt her and then raped her.

About a year after the attack, Dallas police mailed a photo lineup to the woman, who had moved to San Antonio, according to court records. The suspect had been described as a shirtless black man in his 20s. Two photos in the mailed lineup showed shirtless men. One was Mr. Lindsey, whom the woman identified as her attacker.

Mr. Lindsey's alibi was that he was at his job, a commercial laundry where he pressed pants, when the rape occurred. His boss, Mike Pollard, testified that he believed Mr. Lindsey was at work that day.

Mr. Pollard also showed the jury a timecard that put Mr. Lindsey at work during the time of the rape and a check showing that Mr. Lindsey was paid for working that day, according to court records.

But the jury rejected the defense arguments and convicted Mr. Lindsey in 1983. That conviction was overturned on a technicality, however. He was retried in 1985, when another jury convicted him and sentenced him to life in prison.

Mr. Lindsey admitted Friday to being somewhat bitter and angry at the jury for not believing him or his alibi evidence. None of the jurors could be reached for comment.

Investigators are using the DNA profile from the victim's rape kit to try to find the true rapist, said Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. But even if the real perpetrator is found, Mr. Watkins said, there would be obstacles to prosecution, such as the statute of limitations.

Mr. Watkins said he told Mr. Lindsey during Friday's hearing that he's sorry for the years he lost. Then he pointed to the men exonerated by DNA who were sitting in the courtroom – one of whom gave Mr. Lindsey a $100 bill because that's the amount he would have received if he had been paroled – as examples of how Mr. Lindsey should handle his newfound freedom.

"I told him, 'You have a responsibility to do what they are doing,' " Mr. Watkins said. " 'In order for us to change the laws and make the criminal justice system better, you have to do what they are doing.' "