Broadwater, a Black man, was convicted in 1982 after Sebold, who is white, identified him in court as her attacker despite failing to identify him previously in a police lineup.
The conviction was overturned last Monday by a trial judge in New York.
“I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail.
But she didn’t know the man’s name, and police couldn’t find him in a sweep of the neighborhood after she reported him.
The author said in her statement that “40 years ago, as a traumatized 18-year-old rape victim, I chose to put my faith in the American legal system.
After dropping out of the project in June over his concerns, Mucciante hired a private investigator to look into the evidence against Broadwater, only to learn that it didn’t hold up.
“I just hope and pray that maybe Ms. Sebold will come forward and say, ‘Hey, I made a grave mistake,’ and give me an apology,” Broadwater told the New York Times a week ago.