DALLAS -- A 49-year-old man who spent nearly 23 years in prison for a rape he did not commit has been set free after a court hearing in Dallas.

A judge on Wednesday overturned the burglary and rape convictions of Thomas Clifford McGowan, who was convicted in separate trials in 1985 and 1986. He was serving a life sentence.

A DNA test earlier this month showed that McGowan was not the source of the male DNA collected as part of a rape kit in May 1985. Lawyers say he was convicted largely on eyewitness misidentification by the victim.

"Yeah I was surprised. I knew I didn't do it ... how could something like this happen?" McGowan said. "I knew I was innocent."

McGowan's friends and family said they knew he was innocent all along and stuck by his side all those years.

"We waited and waited because we knew justice would prevail eventually," his aunt Darnell Cole said.

McGowan was joyful as he reunited with his loved ones.

"Family done grown up and now they got kids and nephews, and that's what I missed right there," he said.

McGowan said his faith keeps him from being bitter.

"God forgives so hey, I got to forgive too. The bad news is over with," he said.

McGowan is the 17th Dallas man since 2001 to have his conviction cast aside because of DNA testing. That's the most of any county in the nation.