Man cleared of Westchester rape 47 years after wrongful conviction, hugs judge at emotional hearingBy David Propper
Published Sep. 5, 2023
A man wrongly convicted of raping a Westchester County teenage girl nearly five decades ago was finally exonerated Tuesday in an emotional hearing where he shared a hug with the presiding judge.
In what the Innocence Project has called the longest wrongful conviction in American history to be overturned by new DNA evidence, Leonard Mack, now a South Carolina resident, received the gift of exoneration on his 72nd birthday.
State Supreme Court Judge Anne E. Minihan overturned Mack’s 1976 conviction that left him languishing in prison for more than seven years. He was previously found guilty of raping one teen girl and trying to rape another.
But advanced DNA testing proved Mack was not behind the attacks, and instead pointed to a sex offender who recently confessed to the disturbing crimes, the Westchester District Attorney’s Office said.
Mack, a Vietnam War veteran, was originally on authorities’ radar when two high school students were forced at gunpoint into the woods in the town of Greenburgh on May 22, 1975, the district attorney’s office said.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/05/leonard-mack-exonerated-of-1975-rape-of-teen-girl-in-westchester/
