FREE AT LAST!
OUT AFTER 30 YEARS FOR A RAPE HE DIDN’T COMMIT
MARK DENNY spent the last three decades behind bars for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit. But last week the 47-year-old received the greatest gift of all — his freedom.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said Wednesday that authorities were set to vacate Denny’s conviction and dismiss the indictment after an investigation revealed faulty witness identification.
Later in the day, Denny appeared before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic, who made his exoneration official. Denny smiled and waved to his family and friends who filled the courtroom gallery.
“I’m overwhelmed thinking of what I’ll do next to get my life back on track,” he said after walking out of court an innocent man.
“I have no ill feelings towards the victim. Going to prison was a traumatic experience mentally. There’s a lot of people in my position. I appreciate everyone for all they have done for me.”
Denny was the 24th person to have his conviction vacated by the DA’s Conviction Review Unit. Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said his review team examined evidence and interviewed witnesses as well as Denny’s co-defendants in the case.
“After a lengthy and extensive investigation into this horrific case, I have concluded that the cause of justice requires that we vacate the conviction of Mr. Denny,” Gonzalez said.
Denny was exonerated with the help of the Innocence Project, which had been working on his case since 2009.
“Mr. Denny has been waiting for this day for a very long time,” said Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney for the group.
Denny always maintained his innocence but he was still convicted in 1989 and sentenced to 19 to 57 years in prison. He was accused with three other defendants of a late-night gunpoint robbery and rape at a Burger King in Kensington on Dec. 20, 1987.
The four were accused of forcing their way into the restaurant after closing and holding two workers hostage — one of them an 18-year-old woman. They ordered the two employees to undress, took $3,000 from a safe and then raped and sodomized the woman in a back room.
The victim was blindfolded during a portion of the attack and may have passed out.
Denny became a suspect in March 1988 after he was busted two months earlier for gun possession. He had been arrested in a car with the three other defendants, who were wanted for robbing a Manhattan Burger King.
The problems in identifying Denny began right away.
Detectives showed the rape victim a picture of Denny, but she did not identify him. Two days later, she picked him out of a lineup. But during Denny’s trial, the victim was vague in her description of him.
Jennifer Dysart, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice hired by the DA to examine the case, said the victim’s witness reliability was likely affected by her limited view of her attackers, the existence of a gun, the extreme stress from the attack and the lapse between the incident and identifying him.
Gonzalez said Denny’s fingerprints were not found at the crime scene. Two of Denny’s co-defendants’ prints were recovered at the Burger King.
One defendant, Raphael James, was convicted by a jury and was sentenced to 16 to 48 years in prison. He was paroled in 2015. The other had his case dismissed during a second trial because the victim was emotionally unable to testify. The third co-defendant, Eddie Veira, admitted his involvement and pleaded guilty.
Denny’s co-defendants all told the Conviction Review Unit that Denny wasn’t involved.
Even with his innocence, Denny still faces some legal issues. As a child, he came to the United States from Guyana as a lawful permanent resident. While in prison, he was ordered to be deported due to his convictions.
Now the Cardozo Law School’s Immigration Justice Clinic is working to reopen his case and prevent his removal from the country.