SYRACUSE — A judge vacated Anthony Broadwater's conviction in 2021 for the 1981 rape of Alice Sebold. The Syracuse district attorney stated in court that the prosecution should never have occurred, and Sebold apologized to Broadwater.

A patrol officer reported a rape in a Syracuse, New York, park in May 1981. Hospital records from May 8, 1981, indicated the victim was an 18-year-old freshman at Syracuse University. These records documented that the victim had bruises on her face, scratches on her neck, a lacerated hymen, bloody urine, and semen present. Police colleagues recovered a knife and the victim's glasses from the crime scene.

Syracuse Detective George Lorenz interviewed the victim on May 9, 1981. By that time, the victim had undergone an initial police interview, forensic exams, medical exams, and skull X-rays, and had been given Demerol for pain from her injuries. Lorenz wrote in his preliminary report that he believed the case, as presented by the victim, was not entirely factual. He placed the case in the inactive file pending further information in a report marked 13:00 on May 8, 1981. Lorenz spoke to the male student the victim had been visiting before the attack. Lorenz, who had been a police officer for 17 years at the time, stated, "That's inconsequential, just the facts."

Alice Sebold identified Anthony Broadwater as her attacker after encountering him on the street during the fall semester of 1981. Her testimony led to his conviction. Broadwater spent 16 years in prison and nearly 23 years as a registered sex offender. Sebold published a memoir, "Lucky," in 1999, and also a novel titled "The Lovely Bones." In 2021, the Syracuse district attorney stated in court that there had been other rapes in the same park where Sebold was attacked, including one a little over a week after Broadwater's conviction.