According to the California Innocence Project, the woman later admitted that Banks had not kidnapped or raped her during a consensual encounter at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where Banks was a middle linebacker with a scholarship offer from the University of Southern California.

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Those fighting to free Puracal include the director of the California Innocence Project, the human-rights attorney who helped win freedom for Burmese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and an ex-FBI agent who was one of the early champions of Amanda Knox's innocence.

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"Banks was faced with an impossible decision at the time -- either fight the charges and risk spending 41 years to life in prison, or take a plea deal and spend a little over five years of actual prison confinement, " the California Innocence Project says on its website.

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