After spending 19 years in prison for 3 rapes, DNA evidence has proven Dennis Maher factually innocent of the crimes. He left jail today.

A man who spent 19 years in prison after three rape victims identified him as their attacker was freed Thursday based on new DNA evidence, but said he doesn't blame the women whose testimony helped put him behind bars.

Dennis Maher, 42, said he had a message for the women after prosecutors dropped the charges at a hearing at Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge: "What happened to you really happened, and I hold no grudges against you."

Maher, a former paratrooper and mechanic in the U.S. Army, said he blamed Lowell police and his former attorney, now deceased, but was too overwhelmed by his newfound freedom to feel any anger about his years of incarceration.

"It's a big change," Maher said during a press conference at the Boston office of his attorneys. "I expected to die in prison ... and now I'm out."

Maher is the 127th inmate to be exonerated and freed through DNA testing. You can read about his case and how he came to be wrongfully convicted here.