Judge dismisses lawsuit on man’s overturned rape conviction

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Denver authorities filed by a man who spent 28 years in prison for a rape conviction that was later overturned.

Judge Marcia Krieger ruled Monday that Clarence Moses-EL had not shown that the city and various former officials prosecuted him maliciously.

Krieger wrote that Moses-EL’s experience was ” horrifyingly unjust ” but she said the 2017 lawsuit did not demonstrate a violation of his constitutional rights.

Moses-EL was freed in 2015 after a judge overturned his 1988 conviction on rape and assault charges. Prosecutors retried the case but jurors found him not guilty in 2016.

Colorado’s attorney general announced in February that he would not fight Moses-EL’s claim for $1.9 million under state law granting $70,000 for each year a person is wrongfully held.