Cara Tabachnick The longest-standing wrongful conviction to be overturned based on new DNA evidence in U.S. history, the organization said.
Cara Tabachnick
The longest-standing wrongful conviction to be overturned based on new DNA evidence in U.S. history, the organization said.
A DNA hit "conclusively excluded" Leonard Mack, 72, as the perpetrator, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah said in a statement. Conviction Review Unit investigators identified a convicted sex offender after they ran the DNA through databases, and the DA's office said the individual has now confessed to the rape.
On May 22, 1975, police pulled over Mack in Greenburgh, New York, two and half hours after two teenage girls were stopped as they were walking home from school. One teen was violently raped. The other teen broke free and ran to a nearby school where a teacher called the police. The attack happened in a predominantly White neighborhood.
Mack, who is Black, was driving through the neighborhood at the time, and even though he was wearing different clothes than the suspect and had an alibi, he was brought into the police station.
The Innocence Project said racial bias was a factor in police honing in on Mack and not investigating other potential suspects.
The victims identified Mack in a series of "problematic identification procedures," said the Innocence Project, explaining that victims were led through different photo arrays and lineups in which the material wrongly suggested Mack was the perpetrator.
Mack, who has been living in South Carolina with his wife for 21 years, said, "Now the truth has come to light and I can finally breathe. I am finally free."
Cara Tabachnick
The longest-standing wrongful conviction to be overturned based on new DNA evidence in U.S. history, the organization said.