Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know it makes us feel good, it's hard to make time for it.
But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. Therapy can help with things like how to set healthy boundaries or find ways to be the best version of yourself. So if you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.
Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist or switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails.
To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash forensic tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. On May 22nd, 1975, two New York high school girls innocently walked home after school when someone jumped out at them pointing a gun. He tied the girls up with his belt and jacket.
♪♪ ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. You can support my work in two simple ways. Become a valued patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales and leave a positive review. Now, let's get to this week's episode. One of the most serious criminal charges in society today is sexual assault or rape.
Someone convicted of rape can be sentenced to decades behind bars, sometimes even longer if there are aggravating factors like using a weapon. Once someone is convicted, they're usually labeled as a sex offender for the rest of their life. Upon release from custody, the conviction hurts their job hunt or housing search. Additionally, being known among inmates as someone held for rape can prove deadly.
Sexual assault is also one of the worst crimes you can do to someone. It violates the victim in a way that no human should ever experience. Many of these victims spend the rest of their lives trying to deal with and cope with the assault. Almost 50 years ago today, on May 22, 1975, around 3 o'clock p.m.,
Two 12th grade high school students from Woodland High School were walking home from school near a wooded area in New York, a relatively small town in western Westchester County, New York. As the girls walked home from school, a man they had never seen before approached them, holding a gun. The man told the teenage girls not to scream or do anything stupid. Otherwise, he would shoot and kill them. With no other choice, the girls complied.
They didn't know what this person was capable of, and without anyone else around, they did exactly as the attacker said. Using his belt and a shredded-up jacket, he blindfolded, gagged, and bound both of the girls by their wrists and ankles. He then took them to a secluded area once he had them under his control. Then he started sexually assaulting one of the girls, leaving her friend tied up next to her.
But while the assault was happening to one of the girls, the other girl broke free from the belt and torn up jacket. She somehow managed to get the blindfold off of her eyes and binding around her wrist and ankles and ran away before she could be assaulted or even killed. As soon as the girl got far enough away, she ran to get help for her friend.
She knew she was being assaulted but had no idea whether the guy was going to kill her friend or not. So she ran to get help as fast as she could. She made it back to her high school where she told one of her teachers what had happened and that a teacher immediately called the police. Fortunately, the girl who had been sexually assaulted was still alive. She was able to break free from her restraints after the man raped her twice and ran away.
Once free, she ran home as quickly as possible and told her older sister what happened, who also called the police. But by the time the cops were called, the man responsible was nowhere to be found. He was long gone from the scene. All the police could do at that point was to get the girl to the hospital so that she could be examined and have a rape kit done to try and collect any evidence. Once released, the police sat down and interviewed both of the teenage girls.
They were both able to provide detectives with a description of their attacker. They said he was a black man in his early 20s, clean-shaven, with close-cropped hair. They also said he was wearing a black hat with white trim, black pants, and a tan jacket with a gold earring in his left ear. Now, from a law enforcement standpoint, this was pure gold.
In many cases, sexual assault victims aren't able to provide much of a physical description of their attacker. Sometimes the victim didn't get a good look at the person or the assailant was disguised. But with not only one victim, but two victims, that meant two people were able to see the guy and get a good look at him. So police felt confident about being able to catch this guy.
Once the police had a good idea of what this person looked like, they issued a dispatch for all available officers to be on the lookout for a black suspect in his early 20s who matched that description. They also knew the suspect might be carrying a .22 or .32 caliber handgun. The search for the young black suspect only took the police about two and a half hours.
Less than three hours after the girls talked to the cops, Officer James Flemings from the Greenberg Police Department pulled over a guy named Leonard Mack, a 23-year-old man who matched the girls' description. When Officer Flemings pulled him over, Leonard Mack was wearing a black fedora hat with a gold earring in his left ear, exactly how the girls described their attacker.
He also checked all the other boxes the cops were looking for, a clean-shaven, young black male in his early 20s. But when Officer Fleming pulled Leonard over and was questioned about the rape, he denied everything. He said he didn't know what the officer was talking about. He never even met or spoke with the two high school girls. And he even offered the cop an alibi for when the alleged attack happened.
He said he was miles away from where it happened and was with his girlfriend at the time, who was also willing to talk to the cops and say that he was with her. But the cops weren't buying it. Even just by looking at Leonard, they felt like they had their guy. So despite having an alibi, the police searched Leonard's car where they found a .22 caliber revolver in the trunk. That's when police immediately placed Leonard under arrest.
He matched the physical description, and he had a similar looking gun. Leonard was a veteran who served in the Vietnam War and lived in the area. According to the police, he looked exactly like the person the girls described, and he was wearing a black fedora hat when the cops pulled him over. But the rest of his clothes didn't seem to match. He wasn't wearing black pants or a tan jacket like the girls said.
But the police completely discarded those small little details. It had been a few hours after the assault happened. So in their minds, it's possible that Leonard had time to go home, change clothes, and that could explain why he wasn't wearing black pants or a tan jacket. After Leonard was put in handcuffs, but before he was taken to the police station, the cops brought one of the witnesses to the scene to see if she could identify him.
So the girl was brought to Harney Road, where Leonard was in handcuffs and surrounded by the officer who arrested him, Officer Fleming, plus an additional six cop cars. After only a few minutes, the girl identified Leonard as the man who attacked her and her friend. And that was all the police needed to hear. They then took Leonard down to the station for further questioning.
Using a photo lineup with Leonard's picture and six other photos of other black men, the victim identified Leonard as her attacker again. But this photo lineup wasn't exactly perfect, and it certainly didn't follow all of the normal rules and procedures. First, Leonard's photo was the only one that clearly showed his face. The other six photos of similar-looking black men didn't clearly show their faces, but
Their faces were obscured in one way or another. So whoever looked at the photo lineup wouldn't get a good view of their faces. Only Leonard's. The second problem was that a May 1975 calendar was hanging on the wall directly behind Leonard. It was the only photo in the lineup with that particular calendar behind him. All of the other photos had a much different background and were all similar to one another.
Leonard's image was the only one with a drastically different background, so naturally his photo probably stood out more than the others. Regardless of these major differences, one of the female victims felt pretty good about her selection. She had identified Leonard on the street where he was arrested and put in handcuffs, and now she identified him at the police station in a photo lineup. But the police didn't stop there.
After the photos, they had the girl make another identification. In this third attempt, the same girl was brought back to the police station later that night. This time, she was only given one photo to look at. It was a photo of Leonard Mack. Not surprisingly, the girl once identified him as the guy, even though she admitted he was wearing different clothes.
The police brought that same photo lineup they used earlier with the first victim to the hospital to show the second victim, the rape victim. But the rape victim was considered legally blind. She said she recognized the clothing that Leonard was wearing, but she couldn't say for sure whether or not it was him who attacked her. Her vision just wasn't good enough for her to tell.
When she was eventually released from the hospital, the police brought her back to the police station. They then had her sit in a room facing Leonard, who sat behind a one-way glass in the room next door. They then asked her if she would recognize him as the person responsible. But there was a problem. The police didn't ask her to identify Leonard by herself. Instead, she was brought in with her friend who was with her that day.
So when the police asked her if she could identify him, her friend immediately jumped in and said, yeah, that's him. The victim, again, who's legally blind, then just went with what her friend said. Next, police investigated Leonard's voice. They had Leonard repeat apparently what he said at the scene. Don't scream, don't turn around, or I'll kill you.
That's when both girls agreed that was Leonard. The police had everything they needed to move forward with criminal charges against Leonard. He matched the physical description, young black male in his early 20s. He was wearing a black hat. He had a gold earring in his left ear, eyewitness identification. So the police believe they have their perpetrator.
Leonard Mack was ultimately charged with first-degree rape and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. But Leonard denied everything. He said he was innocent and they arrested the wrong guy, something that police and prosecutors probably hear all the time. Leonard's trial got underway in March 1976, a full 10 months after he was arrested. The stars of the prosecution's case were the two witnesses who identified Leonard in the first place.
But his defense had their own set of star witnesses. They had Leonard's girlfriend, who testified that he was nowhere near where the rape happened. They also had two auto mechanics who testified that they worked on Leonard's car at the same time when the assault occurred. Leonard was there at the shop with these two auto mechanics, so there was no way that he could be in two places at once.
Leonard also took the stand in his own defense, saying he was completely innocent. But cases like this hardly ever come down to he said, she said, or eyewitness testimony. They usually come down to the forensic evidence. And according to the prosecution, the forensic evidence was on their side.
State investigators had tested the victim's underwear for DNA at the hospital. They also took a vaginal swab as part of her rape kit. When the swab and underwear were tested, they returned positive for biological material, specifically acid phosphatase, a marker for the presence of semen. Now, that didn't necessarily prove that Leonard was the guy. It simply proved someone had raped one of the girls because they found semen.
Since DNA testing wasn't available back in 1976 at the time of the trial, there wasn't much crime labs could do with DNA. In this case, the only fact the prosecution could prove for sure was that they found semen. They couldn't test it to see if it was a match to Leonard or not. Let's say this crime happened today. The process would look a little bit different.
Not only would the state be able to say whether there was semen present on the underwear or swab, but they could also be able to rule Leonard in or out as a potential suspect. But that wasn't the case back in 1976. One of the biggest witnesses for the defense was Dr. Alexander Weiner from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York City.
He testified that, yes, semen was found on the vaginal swab and the girl's underwear. But he believed this sample actually excluded Leonard as a suspect. When he tested the semen sample, he discovered that the suspect had type A blood type. Leonard didn't have type A blood. So according to the defense, Leonard couldn't have committed the rape.
At the time, blood typing was the only type of DNA testing being performed. They could pull DNA from a crime scene and then be able to tell what the person's blood type was, A, B, or O. But that's pretty much it. And now we find out that Leonard's blood doesn't even match. He doesn't have type A blood, the type of blood they found during the rape kit. So case closed. Or was it?
The defense had a credible witness testify, again, that Leonard's blood didn't match the semen. But the prosecution challenged this. They cast doubt on Dr. Weiner's testimony by suggesting that Leonard's DNA could have been present on the swab and the underwear, even though the blood type didn't match. Since DNA testing wasn't available in 1976, they could only talk about blood type.
So, according to the prosecution, Leonard was still the guilty one. On March 29, 1976, Leonard Mack was found guilty of all three charges, first-degree rape and two counts of possessing a weapon, despite there not being any available DNA testing. The jury believed the victims who identified him as the suspect, and they convicted him of every charge.
Leonard was sentenced to seven and a half to 15 years in prison, and he would forever be labeled as a violent rapist, someone who attacked and assaulted two young teenage girls. Leonard and his attorneys immediately filed an appeal, but it was rejected, and the original conviction was upheld in 1977. So he remained in prison despite continuing to maintain his innocence.
While in prison, Leonard filed two separate motions for a new trial in 1980. But much like the original appeal, both of the motions were denied. This meant that he was at the end of his road and would have to serve out the rest of his sentence until he was granted parole. After serving over six years in prison, Leonard was released on parole on December 13, 1982. And Leonard did his very best to move on with his life.
He knew he would always be labeled a felon and a rapist, but he didn't want that to be all he was known for. Especially not a crime he said he didn't commit. But it's extremely hard for convicted felons to move past their convictions. After being released from prison, they usually have a hard time fitting back into everyday society. They struggle to find work. They sometimes end up homeless or couch surfing.
And of course, society continues to label them a criminal despite serving their time. Then there's the reality that unfortunately, many of these people end up right back in prison. Leonard eventually moved to South Carolina, but never stopped trying to clear his name. He didn't want to be labeled a rapist for the rest of his life. So many years later, in 2019, Leonard decided it was time to fight back.
He picked up the phone and contacted the Innocence Project, an organization whose mission is to free innocent people and prevent wrongful convictions. Normally, people contact the Innocence Project because they're stuck behind bars still serving their sentences. But this case was a little different. Leonard Mack wasn't behind bars. He had been free for 36 years before he decided to contact them.
But proving his innocence still mattered to him. It took almost three years, but in May of 2022, the Innocence Project decided to take on his case, a major victory for Leonard. For an organization like the Innocence Project, to choose to work on his case is a huge vote of confidence. They're evaluating anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases to work on at any given time.
and they can only take a small amount of those. Plus, Leonard was a free man. Most of the people who write to the Innocence Project are prisoners. They rarely decide to work on a case where the accused has already served their time.
The Innocence Project accepted Leonard's case in May 2022, and six months later, asked the Westchester County District Attorney's Conviction Review Unit, or CRU, to examine Leonard's innocence claims. After taking on the case, the CRU found several concerning things about the original police investigation, as well as the criminal trial.
For starters, they discovered that the eyewitness identifications were, quote, tainted by problematic and suggestive procedures used by the police, end quote. Second, when they obtained the victim's underwear and Leonard's underwear and had them tested by the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research, Leonard's DNA was excluded as being the source of DNA on the victim's underwear.
In other words, now that they finally had advanced DNA testing, this testing proved that his DNA didn't match. This also explains why his blood type didn't match either all those years earlier. After almost five decades, the authorities finally realized they might have the wrong guy. The DNA from the victim's underwear was submitted to all the available databases for comparison to see if they could find a match.
Maybe whoever it belonged to had committed another crime and their DNA was on file. They were right. Not long after the DNA was submitted for comparison, the authorities got a hit. It was for a man who had been convicted of a burglary and rape that happened in Queens, New York, just weeks after the assault of the two high school girls.
He also had a 2004 conviction of burglary and sexual assault of a woman in Westchester County, again, the same county where the original crime happened in 1975. Armed with this new information, an investigator with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office went to interview the man whose DNA matched the DNA from the victim's underwear.
To everyone's surprise, the criminal confessed. He said yes, he was the guy who attacked those two high school girls back in 1975 as they walked home from school. But here's the problem, and it's a really big problem. This guy couldn't be arrested for anything.
Despite his DNA matching, and despite the fact someone else had already spent over six years in prison for a crime that he committed, he couldn't be arrested or charged with anything. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had already passed. So, the prosecutor's hands are tied. But something could be done about Leonard Mack.
On August 31, 2023, District Attorney Miriam Broca, with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, filed a motion asking the judge to vacate Leonard's 1976 conviction of rape and two counts of possessing a weapon. Following the motion, the DA had this to say, quote,
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, end quote. Only about a week after the prosecution's motion, the judge vacated Leonard's conviction and dismissed the case on September 5th, 2023.
After her decision, the judge came off the bench to hug Leonard and shake his hand. The duration of Leonard Mack's wrongful conviction of more than 48 years is the longest in U.S. history to be overturned by DNA evidence. So how exactly did this happen? Who's to blame for Leonard's 48-year-long wrongful conviction? And can something like this ever happen again?
According to the Innocence Project, three obvious police procedures went really wrong with Leonard's case. Number one, multiple eyewitness misidentifications. According to the Innocence Project, both of the girls who were victims in this case were asked to identify Leonard in a series of highly suggestive and problematic identification procedures.
The first was having one of the victims come to the scene where Leonard was originally arrested to identify him. When she got there, Leonard was already in handcuffs and surrounded by at least six cop cars. So from the outside looking in, you would assume this person is guilty or did something wrong. He visually looks guilty. The second was the photo lineup. Leonard was the only one in the lineup looking directly at the camera when his photo was taken.
The other six potential suspects were all looking in a different direction, so the girl didn't get a clear look at their faces. The background was also much different behind Leonard, making his photos stick out, a common mistake made by the police when creating flawed photo lineups. Finally, there was the second victim, who was considered legally blind at the time.
Even though it was well documented that she couldn't tell someone's gender if they were more than 10 feet away from her, she was still asked to identify Leonard. According to the Innocence Project, she also couldn't tell what color someone's clothes were if they were standing more than 5 feet away. So, it would have been really hard for her to accurately identify Leonard. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but it would have been hard.
To add to Leonard's case, the Innocence Project argued what they call flawed forensic testimony at trial. The state's case primarily relied on the fact that semen was found on the victim's underwear. But that didn't prove anything. The semen could have belonged to any male who lived or visited the area where the girls were attacked. Plus, the defense had their own expert testify that the blood type didn't even match Leonard's.
So the case should have been dismissed right then and there. Then there was the issue of what the Innocence Project says is racial bias and tunnel vision. Satisfied that they had their suspect, a black male wearing a black hat and a gold earring in his left ear in a predominantly white neighborhood, they arrested Leonard without looking any farther. Leonard fit the mold, so he was arrested. Case closed.
And once the police had Leonard in their chokehold, they never considered any other suspect. So they had tunnel vision with their investigation. Now, race isn't anything new when it comes to wrongful convictions. According to the Innocence Project, while only 13.6% of the American population identify as Black...
They account for 53% of the 3,200 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, according to its 2022 report. Race and wrongful convictions in the United States. Based on exonerations, innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes.
Also, of the 245 people the Innocence Project has helped free or exonerate, 58% of them are Black. Leonard Mack is just another one of these eye-opening statistics. Susan Friedman, one of Leonard's attorneys with the Innocence Project, had this to say, quote, "'Mr. Mack has lived with the stigma of this wrongful conviction for nearly five decades.'
His courage and determination are why we now have indisputable scientific evidence that proves his innocence. End quote. In another statement, Leonard himself said this, quote,
Now to this day is here, I just thank God. I thank God that finally the truth came out. Now I can truly say I'm free. Not when I get out of sing-song, but when I walk out of here today. After 48 years, I'm walking out a free man." Leonard Mack's wrongful conviction is the longest in U.S. history to be overturned with DNA evidence.
His case might just be the first in a string of many others soon to come. DNA advancements will soon help other innocent people. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case.
Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
Thank you.
For supporting the show, you'll become one of the first to listen to new ad-free episodes and snag exclusive show merchandise not available anywhere else. To learn about how you can support the show, head over to our Patreon page.
patreon.com slash forensic tales or simply click the support link in the show notes. You can also support the show by leaving a positive review or telling friends and family about us. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers. Tony A, Nicole G, Christine B, Karen D, Nancy H, Sherry A, Michael D,
If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or send me an email at Courtney at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved.
For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.