After serving years in jail allegedly for a rape he did not commit, a US man, identified as a Black, has finally been cleared nearly five decades later thanks to new DNA evidence, said the authorities.US man released after 47 years in wrong conviction rape caseLeonard Mack, who is now 72 years old, was apprehended in 1975, in New Yorks Greenburgh after the rape of a minor girl, who had been walking home from school with another girl.The police have announced a search for a Black suspect in the mostly white neighbourhood and shortly after picked up Mack, who is African American.Under a campaign by the Innocence Project, DNA evidence not available at the time has conclusively excluded 72-year-old, Mack as the perpetrator and identified a convicted sex offender, who has now confessed to the rape, said Westchester County prosecutors office in a statement.“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, Im 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“This is the longest wrongful conviction in US history known to the Innocence Project to be overturned by DNA evidence,” the district attorneys office said, citing Macks unwavering strength fighting to clear his name for almost 50 years.National Registry of Exonerations report on wrong convictionIn the United States, 575 wrongly convicted people have been cleared based on new DNA tests since 1989 — 35 of them while waiting for execution, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.Amid the rise in wrongful convictions, the researchers say that black suspects are far more likely to be the subjects of wrongful convictions than innocent white people.Black people targeted more: ReportAlthough Black people account for only 13.6 per cent of the total US population, over half of the 3,300 people whose convictions were overturned between 1989 and 2022 were Black, said the National Registry of Exonerations in its report.Reacting to his exoneration after 47 years, Leonard Mack said, “I am finally free.”
