HOUSTON -- A man freed from prison over a year ago has been officially cleared of a crime that a DNA test confirmed he never committed, Local 2 reported Wednesday.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a formal writ of Habeas Corpus Wednesday to Josiah Sutton and ruled him innocent by the court system.

The ruling was the last action standing in Sutton's way of complete innocence since Gov. Rick Perry pardoned and freed him from prison on May 14, 2004, of the rape of a woman in 1998.

Sutton, 23, was among hundreds retested after a state audit found a lack of training of lab employees, insufficient documentation and possible contamination of DNA samples at the Houston Police Department.

A pardon for innocence clears the criminal record, restores rights and allows for state reparations of up to $25,000 per year in prison.

The pardon came after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended Perry grant it.

Sutton served more than 4½ years of a 25-year prison sentence before original DNA tests performed by the troubled Houston Police Department crime lab were discredited by new tests.

Police arrested Sutton and one of his friends after the victim said she saw two men she thought had attacked her near her apartment five days after the rape. A crime lab comparison of the two men's DNA with evidence obtained from the woman determined Sutton's friend was not involved in the rape but that Sutton might have been.

Sutton was 16 when charged with the rape and 17 when he was convicted.