Two men have been formally exonerated of a nearly 30-year-old rape and shooting after DNA tests in Dallas County implicated others.
James Curtis Williams and Raymond Jackson were declared innocent of aggravated sexual assault Monday. They became the 31st and 32nd people in Dallas County since 2001 to be cleared of crimes they didn't commit.
Judge Susan Hawk and District Attorney Craig Watkins apologized to them Monday for the wrongful convictions.
Williams and Jackson said Monday that they hold no ill will toward the court and only want for others wrongfully imprisoned to receive justice.
"To know that we still, even in ths country, even though things like this happen, there are still good people that do exist and this has greatly changed my life and it inspires me to do the same," said James Williams.
When we first went there, it was bad, it was bad," said Jackson. "I watched a lot of stabbings and killings and things going on. Sometimes I felt like I might not even make it. But, we made it."
Williams and Jackson were convicted in the 1983 assault of a woman outside a Dallas bar. Both received life in prison and were paroled last year.
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They had been placed in a photo lineup due to their involvement in another case. But DNA testing implicated two other men, Frederick Anderson and Marion Doll Sayles, who investigators say will be charged with attempted capital murder.
NBC 5's Ben Russell contributed to this report.
