“Lucky” withdrawn as author apologizes to man accused of rape

Alice Sebold, the author whose 1999 memoir Lucky revisited the 1981 rape she suffered as a freshman in college, apologizes to the man who spent 16 years behind bars for the crime, eight days after his conviction was quashed.

I am very sorry for Anthony Broadwater and deeply regret what you went through, Sebold said Tuesday in a statement posted on Average.

I am especially sorry that the life you could have led was unfairly stolen from you, and I know that no excuse can change what happened to you and never will. Of the many things I wish for you, I especially hope that you and your family have the time and privacy to heal.

Also on Tuesday, publisher Lucky Scribner released a statement announcing that after the Broadwaters exemption, distribution of all formats of the book would cease while Sebold and Scribner together reflect on how the work might be revised. Scribner said he consulted with the author to make the decision.

Broadwater, a black man, was convicted in 1982 after Sebold, who is white, identified him in court as his attacker although he had not previously identified him in a police queue. Broadwater was also linked to the crime through microscopic hair analysis, which has since been declared largely unreliable by the US Department of Justice.

The conviction was overturned last Monday by a trial judge in New York. In a hearing, the Onondaga County District Attorney told the judge: I am not going to mess this up by saying: I am sorry. It doesn’t cut him. It should never have happened.

In his statement, Sebold explained his week of silence following the Broadwaters waiver. It took me the last eight days to figure out how this could have happened, Sebold said. I will continue to fight the role I unwittingly played in a system that sent an innocent person to jail. I will also struggle with the fact that my rapist will in all likelihood never be known, that he may have continued to rape other women, and that he will certainly never serve the prison sentence Mr. Broadwater suffered.

Sebold, 58, wrote in Lucky about spotting a black man on the street months after his rape and being certain he was her attacker.

He was smiling as he approached. He recognized me. It was for him a walk in the park; he had met an acquaintance in the street, she wrote. Hey, girl, he said. I don’t know you from somewhere?

Sebold wrote that she had not responded but had looked at him directly and knew that her face had been the face above me in the tunnel, where she had been raped.

But she didn’t know the man’s name, and the police couldn’t find him in the neighborhood after reporting him. An officer suggested it must have been Broadwater, which was reportedly seen in the area. He was arrested and convicted, ending his prison term in 1999.

Sebold also wrote in Lucky that she realized what the defense would argue: A panicked white girl saw a black man on the street. He spoke to her familiarly and in his mind she linked it to his rape. She blamed the wrong man.

The author said in his statement that 40 years ago, as a traumatized 18-year-old rape victim, I chose to trust the US legal system. My goal in 1982 was for justice not to perpetuate injustice. And certainly not to forever and irreparably alter the life of a young man by the very crime that had altered mine.

Sebold, whose subsequent novels, The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon, have become major bestsellers, noted that today’s discussion of systemic flaws in the justice system was not a debate, nor a conversation. , not even a whisper in 1981.

His memoir may have indirectly helped defend Broadwater. Lucky was suitable for film when discrepancies between the memoir and the first screenplay adaptation prompted executive producer Tim Mucciante to question the story.

I began to have doubts, not about the story Alice told about her assault, which was tragic, but about the second part of her book on the trial, which didn’t hold water, said Mucciante to New York Times.

After dropping out of the project in June due to his concerns, Mucciante hired a private investigator to examine the evidence against Broadwater, only to learn that it had not held up. The detective suggested that Mucciante should take the results of the investigation to a lawyer. This lawyer, David Hammond, ended up successfully representing Broadwater in court along with defense lawyer Melissa K. Swartz.

The Lucky film project, which was slated to star You actress Victoria Pedretti, was scrapped several months ago after losing funding, Variety reported.

I just hope and pray that maybe Mrs. Sebold will come forward and say, “Hey, I made a big mistake, and apologize,” Broadwater told The New York Times a short while ago. week. I sympathize with her. But she was wrong.

On Tuesday he received his apologies.

Throughout my life, I have always tried to act with integrity and speak with honesty, Sebold said, concluding his statement. And so, I state here clearly that I will remain sorry for the rest of my life that, while pursuing justice through the legal system, my own misfortune resulted in the unjust conviction of Mr. Broadwaters for which he not only served. 16 years behind bars but in hurtful and stigmatizing ways, almost a life sentence.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.