Judge cuts convicted kidnapper’s sentence; man to be freed

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) – An Indiana judge has cleared the way for a man convicted of rape and kidnapping to be freed from prison after nearly four decades behind bars.

Lake County Criminal Judge Salvador Vasquez on Friday modified 59-year-old Clifton Boone Jr.’s sentence of three life sentences to 45 years in prison and three years of probation.

The (Munster) Times reports that Boone is now expected to be released from prison within a few days.

Boone was 19 in August 1975 when he kidnapped three women in Gary and raped one of them. A jury convicted him in 1976 of rape and three counts of kidnapping.

Vasquez said Friday that Boone’s life sentences were “a miscarriage of justice.” He imposed the new sentence under a rare sentence modification agreement with prosecutors.