The case ignited widespread outrage and further strained long-standing tensions between the community and law enforcement. "Our emotions are everywhere," said Laquanda Jacobs, who was exonerated through the Midwest Innocence Project, while preparing to join other advocates on a bus from Kansas City, Kansas, to Topeka.

Some Republican senators, who will consider his nomination to be defense secretary, shrugged off the accusations and defended him.

A former Kansas detective accused of sexual assault was found dead on the day his trial was supposed to begin.