It’s been two weeks since Tyrone Clark became a free man. He spent almost 50 years behind bars for a 1973 rape conviction that he always maintained he didn’t commit. In November, that rape charge was vacated by a Suffolk County Superior Court judge, and District Attorney Rachael Rollins said she would not prosecute the case further.
Clark, criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Harris and Jenifer McKim, senior investigative reporter at the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting, joined Jim Braude on Greater Boston to discuss the case.
When the victim, Anne Kane, started having doubts that she may have identified the wrong man, she spoke exclusively to McKim and went public with her concern that the wrong man was behind bars.
Clark was released after survivor told me that she had doubts about conviction. Anne is white; Clark is black. She said, “It is a well proven fact at this point that eyewitness identification is incredibly unreliable and I had no experience in differentiating black faces.” 2/10
— Jenifer Mckim (@jbmckim) December 8, 2021
McKim said Kane was aware of the unreliability of eyewitness identification, and she began to consider how race may have played a factor in the conviction.
“She’s [Kane] very convinced that she could have been wrong, and that troubles her greatly because she said at the time, when she was that young in her 20s, she had known very few African Americans at all and she really started to build doubt over years and years and years,” McKim said. “She wanted to talk about it because she was concerned.”
Clark told Braude that he would like to meet Kane.
“I want to thank her in person,” he said. “Even though it’s been so long, Jim — 50 years — the fact is that the victim had a lot of courage to do what she did. I’m not really angry at her because it really wasn’t her fault. And I have a heart to forgive.”
Clark’s kidnapping and assault charges still stand, meaning he may not quality for restitution. McKim said that Kane was disappointed that Clark isn’t exonerated on all of the charges related to the case.
In another exchange, she said, “The DA’s office is treading a thin line in trying to right an injustice by letting him go free without accepting responsibility for a wrongful conviction perpetrated many administrations ago, thus avoiding any cost to the state.” 7/10
— Jenifer Mckim (@jbmckim) December 8, 2021
Clark told Braude that he had very few resources when he left prison, not even having a place to stay. He has been overwhelmed with his new freedom and the attention he’s receiving.
“When I came into prison, in 1973, the world was totally different than it today,” he said. “They didn’t have technology and all his stuff that I’m dealing with right now … but I’m free.”
Clark said he plans to start a foundation to help people who have wrongly convicted, many of whom he knew in prison.
“That’s my family in there,” he said. “I don’t want to leave them behind.”
WATCH: Tyrone Clark on newfound freedom after nearly 50-year conviction vacated
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