Manhattan ? Eddie James Lowery is eager to have his good name back after DNA testing cleared him in the 1981 rape of an Ogden woman.

A Riley County District judge ruled Thursday that Lowery was innocent of the crime for which he served 10 years in prison before he was paroled in 1991.

“It’s a very exciting day for me,” Lowery, now 43, said by telephone from the Manhattan office of his lawyer, Barry Clark.

Thursday’s ruling means Lowery will no longer have to register as a sex offender. Lowery, who was dishonorably discharged from the Army because of the conviction, now plans to work on clearing his military record.

Lowery now lives in the Kansas City area and is married with a new family.

Lowery’s attorney, Barry Clark, said he urged Linda Wickstrum, the court clerk, to check courthouse storage areas. She found the “rape kit” that contained evidence from the 1981 attack buried in the corner of a vault.

Lowery was linked to the rape when he was involved in a traffic wreck in Ogden. Police questioned Lowery, then a soldier stationed at Fort Riley, because they knew he had been in the area. He denied any connection.

Lowery agreed to take a polygraph test. Police told him he failed. Hours of police interrogation followed. Desperate to get out of the situation, Lowery confessed.

“They broke me down,” he said Thursday. “I told them what they wanted to hear.”

Jurors found him guilty and sentenced him to 11 years to life in prison.