BARTOW, Fla., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A judge in Polk County, Fla., said Thursday that DNA evidence freed a 54-year-old man after he spent 35 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times said Judge James Yancey officially freed James Bain from prison in light of the new evidence, drawing an emotional response from the man's family members.


"I haven't seen him since he was 16," Bain's brother-in-law, Jessie Atmore, said. "It's been a long, long time."

"I'm so happy, don't know what to do," Bain's mother, Sarah Reed, said in a phone conversation with her daughter, Janie, the newspaper reported.

Bain was convicted at the age of 19 of raping a 9-year-old boy in Lake Wales, Fla., in 1974.

The Times said after Bain's multiple requests for DNA testing in the closed case, one of the motions was approved in July and ensuing tests showed DNA evidence did not match Bain's DNA.