After Conviction Is Thrown Out, Former Prisoner Adjusts To Colorado Lifestyle
DENVER (CBS4) - What's the first thing you would do after spending 28 years in prison?
Clarence Moses-El decided to see the sights of Denver.
"I got a chance to see Red Rocks and I loved that, with my grandkids, so that was good," Moses-El told CBS4 recently in his first television interview on the subject.
Moses-El was released from prison on bond 90 days ago after his conviction was thrown out. He insists he didn't ever commit rape, but he still faces the possibility of a re-trial.
His freedom came after an inmate named L.C. Jackson wrote him a letter in prison that said "Bro Clarence ... I have a lot on my heart. Come up and see me, it's time."
Jackson announced it was he who committed the crime. But Denver's district attorney claims he lied and recanted.
The judge noted that three names, including L.C., were given by the victim, and that Moses-El's name came out only after his face appeared to her in a dream.
Denver police also accidentally lost DNA that was to be tested in the case.
"Are you worried about going back to prison?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked Moses-El.
"No," he said, and added that he doesn't want to go back.
Moses-El says he owes his freedom to his legal team. Throughout his fight to clear his name and be released from prison for a crime he says he didn't commit, Moses-El says he relied on "his innocence."
"That's what I can say right now is what really kept me going," he said.
One of his first desires after his release was to get a good meal. He was amazed him at the cost.
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"I was looking at the price. (I looked around and thought) you all are getting ready to eat this, you going to pay this much?" he said.
Moses-El has now given up a prison cell for a cellphone he says is baffling.
And walking down Denver's 16th Street Mall may seem mundane to most, but he says it was amazing to him.
So was driving again.
"I took a driver's test. I was so happy about that, I mean really thrilled," Moses-El said.
Last December DA's spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said they are moving towards a new trial.
"This is a woman who was so brutally beaten during the assault that she still has disfigurement today," she said.
