DNA tests clear inmate of rape, kidnapping

? A judge Thursday freed an inmate whose claims of innocence in a kidnapping and rape went unheeded for nearly a quarter of a century, until DNA evidence proved him right.

At the end of the 15-minute hearing where Robert Clark was finally granted his freedom, his attorney, Peter Neufeld, patted him on the back and said, “You’re free to go, fella.”

Clark sat in prison for a 1981 attack on an Atlanta woman. His attorneys said DNA from another man matches not only that rape, but two others that were committed later.

Clark, 45, was convicted and sentenced to life plus 20 years after a woman identified him as the man who carjacked her at gunpoint from outside an Atlanta Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and raped her repeatedly.

But recent DNA tests showed that Clark did not commit the crime.

Tests against state and federal DNA databases of convicts matched samples from the rape to Clark’s friend Floyd Antonio Arnold.