Fulton County's District Attorney announced an arrest in a Sandy Springs rape case that led to an innocent man spending more than 21 years in prison.

This all came about because of the Georgia Innocence Project. They tested Willie “Pete” Williams’ DNA last September, and they compared it to the evidence used against him in April 1985. The DNA came back and it said that it did not match Williams’ DNA.

Williams had been sentenced to 40 years, and was released last month after serving nearly 22 years of that sentence.

Twelve days after the initial rape happened in 1985, there was another rape, which happened within three miles of the initial rape. Kenneth Wicker was arrested and convicted in that case. He was sentenced to serve four years in prison, and served that time.

The D.A.’s office has taken the DNA evidence from both of those rapes, compared it and found a match. That DNA also matches Wicker. He has been arrested in connection with April 1985 rape that Williams was originally convicted of.

Williams’ conviction was solely based upon the identification by the rape victim in the case. D.A. Paul Howard said the victim is still having a hard time with the new evidence, because she still believes her identification was correct.

“I think she would still rely on her identification,” Howard said. “But she realizes the scientific evidence conclusively shows her identification was not correct.”

Howard said she has been traumatized by the latest evidence in the case.

Wicker is in now jail for that rape.