By AP
Morgantown, KY – A central Kentucky man serving 55 years on a rape conviction has been freed from prison.
A judge in Butler County ordered that Ben Kiper's conviction be set aside. His stepdaughter confessed in October that she was lying when she said Kiper abused her.
The girl was ten years old when she testified against him in 1999. She says her mother pressured her to testify against Kiper in a custody dispute that year. The girl, who's now 16, says she's relieved Kiper has been freed.
There was no evidence tying Kiper to a rape crime.
His case was reviewed by the Kentucky Innocence Project, an agency in the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy.