Free: Michael McAlister, 58, who has spent the last 29 years in prison, has been released after it was revealed he was wrongly convicted in 1986 for attacking a woman in a Richmond, Virginia, laundromat

A Virginia man who spent 29 years in prison for an attempted rape he did not commit has been pardoned by the governor.

It was revealed Michael McAlister, 58, was wrongly convicted in 1986 when a serial rapist, believed to be Norman Bruce Derr, confessed to the Richmond attack in 2004.

Wednesday's pardon comes five days before a scheduled hearing that could have resulted in Michael McAlister being held indefinitely under Virginia's civil commitment law for treatment as a violent sex offender.

Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said in a written statement that overwhelming evidence shows McAlister is innocent.

McAlister was initially convicted of the February 1986, abduction and attempted rape of a woman who was dragged at knifepoint from an apartment complex laundry room.

The victim identified McAlister as the attacker from a photo lineup that did not include a picture of a serial rapist Derr, who is now believed to be the real perpetrator.

McAlister's sister, Denise Haas, 62, who drove with their mother, Rebecca McAlister to pick him up from prison, told the Washington Post: 'I am one of the happiest women in the whole wide world right now, next to my mother. We're going directly home, so he can eat some of his mother's home-baked cookies.'

After he was let out, McAlister told the Richmond Times Dispatch : 'I'm happy to be out', adding that it was 'unbelievably' Derr had confessed and must have been 'cathartic' for him.

His 81-year-old mother also said: ' This is what I asked for. To live to see Mike out and free. '

Derr had been convicted in two earlier attempted sexual assaults and sentenced to life for a 1988 rape in Fredericksburg.

According to The Post, Richmond attorney Joseph D. Morrissey who prosecuted McAlister said Derr 'looked unbelievably like McAlister'.

Similarities: Serial rapist Norman Bruce Derr (left) is now believed to be the perpetrator. The attorney who prosecuted McAlister (right) said Derr looked 'unbelievably like McAlister'

The 22-year-old victim managed to see part of his face by pulling up a mask.

McAlister, who had been known to the police for public indecency and drunken incidents, looked remarkably like the police sketch that was later released.

Morrissey and detective Charles M. Martin told the state parole board in 1993 they would not have prosecuted McAlister on what they later learned.

In 2002, Governor Mark Warner rejected McAlister's pardon request, allegedly because of the lack f DNA evidence.