Attorneys: DNA evidence exonerates inmate

BRADENTON - The Innocence Project says new DNA testing exonerates a man who's spent 17 years in prison for rape, but prosecutors say other evidence links him to the crime.

Attorneys from the Innocence Project Florida, a group that works to free wrongly convicted inmates, called Tuesday for the release of 47-year-old Derrick Williams.

They say DNA testing of a T-shirt left at the crime scene excludes Williams as the man who kidnapped and raped a woman in her car in 1992. The report from an independent lab was issued Monday.

But prosecutors will fight efforts to free Williams, saying someone else's DNA on the shirt doesn't exonerate Williams. And they say the victim picked him out of a photo lineup as her attacker.

FOX 13's Steve Nichols will have more on this story starting at 5.