DNA HELPS EXONERATE LEONARD MACKS OF 1975 NEW YORK RAPE CONVICTION

before their attacker raped one of them twice and tried to sexually assault the other victim, prosecutors said.

Mack was arrested hours after the crime because he fit the suspect description of a black man with an earring and hat, the DA’s office said.

Despite presenting alibi witnesses at trial, he was found guilty by a jury of firstdegree rape and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah shared with Black westchester that her Conviction Review Unit and the Innocence Project will be asking the court to vacate the conviction of a South Carolina man who served more than seven years in a New York prison for a 1975 rape in Greenburgh that he did not commit. The CRU’s investigation included new DNA testing that conclusively excluded 72-year-old Leonard Mack as the perpetrator and identified a convicted sex offender, who has now confessed to the rape. This would be the longest wrongful conviction in U.S. history to be overturned by new DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, the national litigation and criminal justice policy reform organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted.

“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 confirms that wrongful convictions are not only harmful to the wrongly convicted but also make us all less safe,” DA Rocah told Black Westchester on September 5th.

The Westchester County DA’s Office Conviction Review Unit’s investigation included new DNA hit that led investigators to a registered sex offender who confessed to the crime; wrongful conviction would be the longest known to the Innocence Project to be overturned by DNA evidence

Leonard Mack, who was the victim of a wrongful conviction of rape he did not commit, received the greatest gift of his life on his 72nd Birthday as a State Supreme Court judge of Westchester County officially exonerated him after 47 years of wrong conviction against him. Mack served seven and half years in prison for a rape he did not commit. The Innocence Project called Mark’s case 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, Tuesday, September 5th.

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 23, 1975, the district attorney’s office said.

Mack and Judge Minihan embraced during an emotional hearing. Elijah Craig II/Innocence Project. The two girls were tied up, blinded and gagged

Mack, who is now married, tried behind bars to challenge his conviction multiple times in the 1980s, but the effort was opposed by the Westchester DA’s office and rejected by the courts.

“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,” Mack said in a press release from the Innocence Project that contacted the DA’s office in November 2022.

“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.”

At one point, the South Carolina man wiped tears away.Elijah Craig II/ Innocence Project Minihan, the judge, told him it was the honor of her career to vacate his conviction, according to The Journal News.

“This is your day. You’ve waited much too long for it,” she reportedly told him. “In what we do the stakes are very high and it’s important to get it right.”

The judge left her seat on the bench to give him a hug during the emotional hearing, according to a photo from the Innocence Project.

The man who confessed to the rape was not identified by prosecutors. He could not be charged because the statute of limitations had run out on the old case. He was previously linked to a 1975 rape in Queens – just two weeks after the Greenburgh rape – and another 2004 sex crime in Greenburgh, the DA’s office said. He’s in custody and is being prosecuted for failing to register as a sex offender connected to the 2004 crime, prosecutors said.

Mack, who served seven and half years in prison for the crime, said, “I never lost hope that one day that I would be proven innocent.”

On May 22, 1975, police pulled over Mack in Greenburgh, New York, two and half hours after two teenage girls were stopped as they were walking home from school. One teen was violently raped. The other teen broke free and ran to

Nys Health Dept Reports Tobaccorelated Cancers Down In New York

In aftermath of the vetoed menthol ban in the county, a new report released by the NYS Department of Heath Thursday, Sept. 14, found that f ewer New Yorkers are being diagnosed with tobacco-related cancers. The reports states several of the cancers most often associated with smoking declined throughout the state between 2016 and 2020.

The report found a steep decline both in New York City and elsewhere in the state of incident rates of esophageal, laryngeal, and lung cancer, those most closely related to tobacco use.

Rates of oral cancer, however, increased by 1.3 percent each year between 2006 and 2020 among those living in New York City. Researchers also noted that cigarette smoking among teenagers has reached an all-time low of 2.1 percent.

The NYS Dept of Health Bureau of Tobacco

Control released three new reports June that point to the effectiveness of ongoing tobacco control policies adopted in the State over the last few years. Among the key findings is continued declines in tobacco use by both adults and youths in New York.

“These reports are solid evidence that our policies aimed at improving health outcomes by restricting the purchase of harmful tobacco products are effective,” Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. “The intent of banning the sale of flavored vaping products and restrictions on certain other tobacco sales was to prevent young people from starting a deadly addiction and to encourage adults to quit. We’ve made progress, but have more work to do, both in public education and in policy, to combat this public health threat, including continuing to push for a ban on flavored tobacco products such as menthol.”