Best-selling author, Alice Sebold has expressed regret that in her testimony of been raped 40years ago, she wrongly accused Anthony Broadwater as the assailant. Broadwater was found guilty for a crime he never committed and spent 16years in jail as a consequence.
Alice is very sorry that she accused the wrong guy. Though she is “grateful that Mr. Broadwater has finally been vindicated, but the fact remains that 40 years ago, he became another young Black man brutalised by our flawed legal system. I will forever be sorry for what was done to him,” she wrote recently.
Apart from writing a public apology what else could Alice do? What kind of experience would make up for the trauma that must have accompanied the 16years Broadwater was locked away? What kind of compensation can give him back a measure of what was taken away? Does anyone know the true extent of what was taken away from Broadway?
What else can Alice do apart from her public apology? She can pray to the one who can restore lost years! The Old Testament Hebrew prophet, Joel once brought some remarkable words of hope to the nation of Israel hundreds of years ago. “…I will restore to you the years the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you.”
May the Restorer restore the years to Broadway the only way He can.