MAN CONVICTED AS "BIRD ROAD RAPIST" FREE AFTER DNA TESTING

Luis Diaz, who has spent 26 of his 67 years behind bars after being convicted as the "Bird Road Rapist" in Coral Gables, is a free man today.

At the request of Miami-Dade County prosecutors and representatives of the Innocence Project, Circuit Judge Christina Pereya-Shuminer threw out Diaz' five rape convictions Wednesday after DNA evidence cleared him in two of the cases and cast doubt on his guilt in the others.

Prosecutors, however, didn't completely declare that Diaz was innocent of all the crimes, only citing the difficulty of retrying him after 26 years.

Diaz was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to life in prison for seven of 25 sexual assaults that occurred between 1977 and 1979 in the Bird Road area of Coral Gables, south of downtown Miami.

The Bird Road Rapist would attack young female drivers, signaling them to pull over by flashing his headlights and then forcing them to have sex at gunpoint.

Diaz was arrested after a victim who worked as a gas station attendant spotted a driver she said looked like her attacker. She gave police the license plate number, which led them to Diaz.

The convictions were based on identifications made by eight victims in all, even though some of them initially described a much heavier and taller Hispanic who spoke English. Diaz, a Cuban-American, spoke little English.

Sometimes, justice actually is done. Maybe not as expedient as we would like, but better late than never. While the 26 years Mr. Diaz spent behind bars can never be regained, let's hope that the state will do the right thing for him and provide fair compensation for the life he's lost.