A 72yearold American who served seven years in prison for a rape he did not commit has been exonerated nearly five decades later thanks to a new DNA test, authorities announced on Tuesday (05).
Leonard Mack was arrested in Greenburgh, New York in 1975 after raping a teenager who was walking home from school with another young woman. The police had announced that they were looking for a black suspect in a predominantly white neighborhood.
After a campaign by the Innocence Project, DNA testing, not available at the time, was able to identify “Mr. “We will finally rule out Mack as the perpetrator and identify a convicted sex offender who has since confessed to the rape,” said the Westchester District Attorney’s Office.
“It is the longest wrongful conviction in United States history known to the Innocence Project to be overturned by DNA testing,” the prosecutor said, highlighting “the unwavering strength of Mack for nearly 50 years “Clear your name”.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 575 convicts have been exonerated since 1989 based on new DNA testing, 35 of whom were awaiting execution.
Although Black people make up only 13.6% of the American population, more than half of the 3,300 people whose convictions were overturned between 1989 and 2022 were Black.
“I’m finally free,” Mack responded in a brief statement.