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da "news.yahoo.com" By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 18.

        
BARTOW - For years, James Bain insisted he was home watching TV with his twin sister when a 9-year-old boy was kidnapped and raped.

Then (earlier this year) the Innocence Project of Florida got involved in his case.

On Thursday, Bain was finally set free after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

The Innocence Project says he has spent longer behind bars than any of the other 246 inmates exonerated by DNA nationwide.

In 1974, Bain, 19-year-old, was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping and rape of the boy.

Bain was convicted largely on the strength of the victim's eyewitness identification, though testing available at the time did not definitively link him to the crime.
The boy said his attacker had bushy sideburns and a mustache.
The boy's uncle said it sounded like Bain, a former student.
The jury rejected Bain's story that he was home watching TV.

 Eric Ferrero, spokesman for the Innocence Project, said a DNA profile can be extracted from decades-old evidence if it has been preserved properly. That means sealed in a bag and stored in a climate-controlled place..

Florida last year passed a law that automatically grants former inmates found innocent $50,000 for each year they spent in prison.
No legislative approval is needed.
That means Bain is entitled to $1.75 million.