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A |     MUMBAI, India -- IOC president Thomas Bach was urged by its members on Sunday to change Olympic rules on term limits and seek four more years as president.Bach’s presidency is due to end in 2025 – a 12-year maximum agreed in anti-corruption reforms passed after the Salt Lake City bid scandal broke in the 1990s.However, citing the recent years of global crises, several of the 99 International Olympic Committee members opened their annual meeting Sunday suggesting they needed more of Bach's leadership that started in 2013.The Olympic movement needed “to go through this period of torment with a president who has proved his mettle,” African sports leader Mustapha Berraf said.“We really need to be able to rely on the leadership you have shown,” said IOC member Luis Mejia Oviedo of the Dominican Republic.Though Bach has never publicly sought a term limit-busting third mandate, the option has been spoken of in international sports circles since he was re-elected in 2021 at a meeting held remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IOC gives its president a first term of eight years.“I cannot hide how that went straight to my heart,” Bach told IOC members of their praise at its annual meeting being held in Mumbai.Bach cautioned the presidential term limit is enshrined in the IOC’s book of rules and principles. “I’m very loyal to the Olympic Charter,” the German lawyer said. “Being a co-author of this Olympic Charter drives me to be even more loyal.”Extending Bach’s term would need a proposal submitted ahead of an annual meeting, known as the Session. The next is scheduled in July in Paris on the eve of the 2024 Summer Games.Only one IOC member has publicly spoken about a possible leadership bid: World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500 meters, head of the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee and a former elected lawmaker in the British parliament.Coe turns 70 in September 2026, the year his IOC membership should expire, and a 2025 election should be his only option.A diplomatically expressed counter to extending Bach’s term was suggested by gymnastics federation president Morinari Watanabe, who has been speculated as a possible IOC leadership candidate.“You guided us all that sports organizations must follow rules and have high integrity under good governance,” Watanabe suggested. “Sports demonstrate discipline and the spirit of fairness to society.”“I love you, Mr President Thomas Bach,” the Japanese official said, “because I believe you are a correct person.”Bach replied: “Thank you for your love.”—-AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games。    OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday exonerated a man who spent 30 years in prison for a 1987 rape and burglary, after post-conviction DNA testing from a rape kit showed he did not commit the crime.Pontotoc County District Judge Steven Kessinger issued a final order that vacates Perry Lott's conviction and permanently dismisses the case. “I have never lost hope that this day would come,” Lott, 61, said in a statement. "I had faith that the truth would prevail, even after 35 long years.“I can finally shut this door and move on with my life.”Lott was released from prison in 2018 after the DNA results first came to light, but only after agreeing to a deal with former District Attorney Paul Smith to modify his sentence. The agreement allowed Lott to leave prison and remain free while his motion to vacate was litigated. At the time, Smith said the DNA evidence did not exclude Lott as a suspect.But earlier this year, the Innocence Project, which helped to free Lott, approached newly elected District Attorney Erik Johnson, who reviewed the case and agreed the conviction should be vacated.“Five years ago, all evidence pointed to his innocence, but he was denied justice,” Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Adnan Sultan said in a statement. "We are grateful to District Attorney Erik Johnson for his commitment to righting this wrong.”Oklahoma state law requires a conviction to be vacated in order for a wrongfully convicted person to be able to seek up to $175,000 in compensation from the state.Lott's case occurred around the same time and in the same county as the convictions of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, whose cases have come under intense scrutiny and have been the subject of numerous books, including John Grisham's “The Innocent Man,” which he produced into a six-part documentary on Netflix. A federal judge ordered Fontenot released, but Ward remains in prison.The books and documentary also feature the high-profile exoneration of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, who both were convicted in the same county for the 1982 killing of Ada waitress Debra Sue Carter. That case featured the same cast of investigators and prosecutors, along with the same jailhouse informant who testified against Ward and Fontenot. Williamson at one point came within days of being executed. Both were later freed.。