A Suffolk County Superior Court judge on Thursday said she’s not yet ready to decide on the fate of a Massachusetts man seeking to vacate his 1974 rape conviction after the victim raised doubts about her identification of the attacker.
Judge Christine Roach paused the case of Tyrone Clark for two weeks in order to get an official response from the Boston Police Department about allegations of lost physical evidence from the case that Clark claims could prove his innocence.
Roach is considering a new motion by Clark to reopen his case, alleging that the Commonwealth failed to preserve key evidence. Clark, 66, has always insisted he was wrongly convicted.
District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed a motion supporting reopening the case, citing lost evidence and the victim's concerns that she might have misidentified the attacker.
The victim, Anne Kane, told GBH News in an exclusive interview that she was concerned that she may have misidentified Clark. Kane is white and Clark is Black. Kane says she has learned since her attack about failings in the criminal justice system, especially with cross-racial witness identifications. She says she knew few Black people at the time of her attack.
Clark’s attorney Jeffrey Harris said Thursday he is “hopeful and optimistic” about the outcome of Clark’s case. “I do think the judge is considering this,’’ he said.
