‘Unconscionable is an understatement’: Louisiana man freed after serving 36 years for a rape he didn’t commit

NEW ORLEANS — A man who spent more than 35 years in prison for rape is now a free man after a judge tossed his conviction.

Sullivan Walter, now 53, was only 17 when he was accused of breaking into a woman’s home in 1986 and sexually assaulting her at knifepoint.

Thursday, Aug. 25, he appeared in front Judge Darryl Derbigny before walking out of the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center into the arms of his family.

Derbigny pulled no punches during Walter’s hearing, deriding the investigation that saw exculpatory blood and semen evidence withheld from the jury.

“To say this was unconscionable is an understatement,” the judge said to Walter.

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Walter was convicted solely on the now-deceased victim’s description of her attacker, a description that those connected with the case say was anything but clear.

The woman was asked to cross-racially identify the masked man during an attack that happened in a dark room while he forced her not to look at him, according to court records. She was not shown a picture of Walter until more than a month after the assault.

“There were some red flags that the eyewitness testimony could well have been unreliable,” said Emily Maw, a civil rights attorney in the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Officials say the case file included inconsistent police statements and evidence that showed blood and semen collected from the victim didn’t match Walter’s.

Race also played a role in the conviction, said Innocence Project New Orleans Legal Director Richard Davis.

“The lawyers and law enforcement involved acted as if they believed that they could do what they chose to a Black teenager from a poor family and would never be scrutinized or held to account,” Davis said in a statement. “This is not just about individuals and their choices, but the systems that let them happen.”