Crime & Safety
Suffolk County District Attorney Orders “Finality Must Yield” In Vacating 1974 Rape Conviction
DA Rollins assented to defense motion in light of Commonwealth's failure to preserve evidence, victim's uncertainty of ID.
November 24, 2021
BOSTON, November 24, 2021—A Suffolk Superior Court judge yesterday vacated the conviction of TYRONE CLARK after Suffolk prosecutors assented to the defendant’s motion to vacate his rape conviction. District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed a nolle prosequi today, formally ending the rape case against Mr. Clark.
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The decision issued by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christine Roach notes that there is no indication from the record that the critical evidence in question – biological material on an item of the victim’s clothing – was preserved by investigators in 1973. In addition, the one piece of physical evidence that was maintained, a knife handle, was compromised by being touched throughout the decades, leading to inconclusive forensic testing. Where the only forensic evidence that had the potential to exonerate Mr. Clark was inadvertently destroyed by the Commonwealth (or its agents), in combination with the victim coming forward with genuine concerns regarding the accuracy of her identification from nearly 50 years ago, the just result was to vacate the conviction.
This press release was produced by the Suffolk County District Attorney. The views expressed here are the author’s own.