Rapist look-a-like pardoned after three decades in jail

A US man jailed for 29 years because he resembled a rapist has finally been pardoned for the crime that officials admit he did not commit.

Michael Kenneth McAlister was a 29-year-old carpenter living with his mother when he was identified in a photo array, and later in court, by a woman who was assaulted in the laundry room of an apartment complex in Virginia, one night in 1986.

The offender wore a stocking mask and plaid shirt and carried a knife.

McAlister, who was known to police from a few alcohol-related incidents of public indecency and who was told to wear a plaid shirt in the photo array, was convicted and jailed.

But the real perpetrator was a serial rapist who bore a striking resemblance to McAlister.

That man, Norman Bruce Derr, was identified by victims of a series of violent sexual assaults in 1985 and 1986 in Virginia, including five assaults that occurred in apartment complex laundry rooms.

Detectives began to have doubts about McAlister's guilt and Derr recently confessed to the 1986 attempted rape and kidnapping, The Washington Post reports.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe yesterday offered an unconditional pardon.

"A number of individuals in the law enforcement community ... have concluded that this crime was committed by another individual, and that Mr McAlister should be freed to return to his family and his community," McAuliffe said in a written statement.

"I have reached the same conclusion, and I have acted in accordance with the law."

McAlister was "ecstatic, very emotional and very excited" when informed of the news by telephone, said one of his lawyers, Shawn Armbrust, the executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.

McAuliffe later said on his Twitter account that with McAlister was headed home and looking forward to a "nice home-cooked meal".