Over half his life has been spent in prison for a rape he didn't commit. At 36, Dennis Brown is free for the first time since he was 17 when he was charged and convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint in her home. New DNA tests have excluded him as the perpetrator. What convicted him? Faulty eyewitness testimony.

During a trial in September 1985, the victim testified she was certain Brown raped her. "I had his face this close," she testified, holding her hand less than 6 inches from her face, "for at least 20 minutes, and he's the man."

Brown denied the attack when he took the stand in his own defense, against his attorney's objection. He told the jury the police investigators were lying and that the first time he set eyes on the victim was in court. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Brown protested his innocence for years and the Innocence Project took up his case.

Under a statute passed in 2001, lawyers from the group secured a court order to test any evidence preserved by police in Brown's case. DNA tests of blood, semen and clothing found at the scene excluded Brown as the rapist.

Brown says he never lost faith, he knew he'd eventually be freed. He's now home.

His brother, Archie, hugged him for the first time in nearly two decades and drove him home, first stopping for foot-long shrimp po-boys.