RICHMOND, Va. -- Michael McAlister is now a free man after serving nearly 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
"It's a beautiful day for anything," McAlister said during an interview Thursday afternoon with WTVR CBS 6 News.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned McAlister this week and was released from prison Wednesday night. McAlister spent his first night of freedom at his mother's house in Powhatan.
"Mom made pork chops for me," McAlister said with a smile.
In 1986, McAlister was accused and eventually convicted of raping a woman in the Country Town Home Apartments in Richmond. At the time, McAlister looked like a well-known serial rapist. However, that fact was overlooked by investigators.
The victim testified in court that McAlister was responsible. However, it was not until the rapist, Norman Bruce Derr, confessed in recent years that a pardon became a possibility.
McAlister said he does not blame the woman who testified against him.
"She wouldn't have done that intentionally," McAlister said.
CBS 6 interviewed the former prosecutor in the case, former Del. Joe Morrissey.
Morrissey, who said that a week after the case was finalized he told the judge he was not sure that McAlister "got his day in court," was baffled that it took so long for McAlister to be freed.
Michael McAlister and his mother.
McAlister said he has not immediate plans to seek compensation from the state nor does he have plans to seek a job.
"Right now I am just so overwhelmed with everything I don't even know where I am," McAlister said.
McAlister said he plans to visit his children and grandchildren in Florida. He also plans to devote some time to fishing, which he said is his favorite activity.
McAlister is the 19th person to have their conviction overturned, according to group that fought for the pardon, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.
"It's a beautiful day for anything," McAlister said during an interview Thursday afternoon with WTVR CBS 6 News.
