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Leonard Mack is Exonerated after 47 years! [1]

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Date: 2023-09-06

How do these things happen? How do you give this man back what was wrongfully taken from him?

CNN

Nearly five decades after he was wrongfully convicted of rape, a New York judge has overturned the conviction of Leonard Mack following new DNA testing that eliminated him as the perpetrator and identified a different man who has since confessed to the crime, prosecutors announced. Mack, 72, served more than seven years in New York prison after a jury found him guilty of a 1975 rape of a high school girl in Greenburgh and a related weapons charge, according to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. After opening a review of Mack’s claim to innocence last year, the district attorney’s office conducted DNA testing that “conclusively excluded” Mack as the rapist and also found that the initial investigation and prosecution relied on eyewitness identifications that were “tainted by problematic and suggestive procedures used by the police,” the office said in a release.

Innocence Project

“I want to first thank God for this day. Next, I want to thank the Innocence Project. Today has been a long time coming. I lost seven-and-a-half years of my life in prison for a crime I did not commit and I have lived with this injustice hanging over my head for almost 50 years. It changed the course of my life — everything from where I lived to my relationship with my family. I never lost hope that one day that I would be proven innocent. Now the truth has come to light and I can finally breathe. I am finally free.” Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah said, “Today we’re asking the courts to find Leonard Mack actually innocent for a rape he never committed; for which he unjustly served more than seven years in prison. We were able to prove Mr. Mack’s innocence, in large part, due to our independent Conviction Review Unit’s commitment and Mr. Mack’s unwavering strength fighting to clear his name for almost 50 years. This exoneration and the new DNA evidence confirm that wrongful convictions are not only harmful to the wrongly convicted but also make us all less safe.”

snip

On May 22, 1975 at 3:00 p.m., two 12th-grade students from Woodland High School were walking home from school near a wooded area in Greenburgh, NY, when a man approached them and held them at gunpoint. He told them not to scream or he would kill them, and proceeded to use their belt and shreds of jacket to blindfold, gag, and restrain both girls’ wrists and ankles. He then raped one of the girls twice and threatened them again as he left the scene. The girl who was not raped broke free and ran to a nearby school where a teacher called the police. The second victim, who was raped, freed herself and ran home, where her sister also called the police, before being taken to the hospital where a rape kit was collected.

x “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, I’m free at last.” Leonard Mack, exonerated after 47 years. This is the longest wrongful conviction overturned by DNA in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/0rvYk3YMMd — Innocence Project (@innocence) September 5, 2023

I’m not good at writing these kind of stories. So I’ll use this another source so I don’t cross the usage rule.

Independant UK

On 22 May 1975, in Greenburgh, New York, police stopped Mr Mack approximately two and a half hours after an incident in which two teenage girls were accosted as they walked home from school. During the incident, one of the teenagers was raped, while the other managed to escape and sought help at a nearby school where a teacher promptly alerted the police. The attack took place in a predominantly white neighbourhood and the Greenburgh police department had issued a description of a suspect, specifying a Black male in his early twenties. Despite having an appearance distinct from the suspect while driving through the neighborhood at the time – including different clothing and an alibi to support his innocence – Mr. Mack was apprehended and taken to a police station for questioning.

What does the Justice System owe this man?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/6/2191763/-Leonard-Mack-is-Exonerated-after-47-years

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