After 47 years, a New York man has been exonerated after new DNA testing conclusively excluded him as the perpetrator of a 1975 rape. This is the longest known wrongful conviction in US history to be overturned by DNA evidence. The true perpetrator, a convicted sex offender, has confessed to the rape.
Leonard Mack, 72, spent over seven years in prison after being convicted in 1976 for the crime he did not commit. Mr Mack said: “I never lost hope that one day that I would be proven innocent.”
In May 1975, two teenage girls were walking home from school in the predominately white town of Greenburgh, New York when a man stopped them and held them at gun point.
One of the girls was raped twice while the other managed to escape and run for help.
The Greenburgh Police Department issued a dispatch for officers to be on the lookout for a black male in his early 20s.
Shortly after the attack, police stopped Mr Mack, who happened to be driving through the neighbourhood. Though Mr Mack had a strong alibi and was wearing different clothes than the suspect, police still arrested him. Credit: bbc.com
