Recently pardoned Michael McAlister was guilty until proven innocent after 29 years of incarceration
Just this week, Michael Kenneth McAlister, 58, was granted an absolute pardon for his wrongful conviction on rape charges in 1986.?Apparently, he wasn’t heard in the 1980s during his conviction. In fact, it wasn’t until the real serial rapist, Norman Bruce Derr, confessed to the attempted rape that McAlister was pardoned.
McAlister was ecstatic, very emotional and very excited, according to his lawyer Shawn Armbrust. It’s stories like this that make me question the kind of relationship we have with the justice system.
McAlister was locked up for 29 years for a crime he did not commit. That’s nearly half of one’s life. Perhaps the case was a hard one to break, as many have claimed that McAlister bore an uncanny resemblance to Derr, the real serial rapist. However, that gives little reason to lock him up for three decades. Yet, he was because the woman who was attacked identified McAlister as the attacker in a photo lineup. Unfortunately, that was the only link between McAlister and the attempted rape.
It didn’t help that the attacker wore a stocking as a mask, and the woman attacked was only able to see his lower face. The victim’s false identification turned a then 29-year-old carpenter living with his mother, whose only priors were for public indecency involving alcohol, into a convicted rapist.
With that said, McAlister’s ?prosecutor, Joseph D. Morrissey, and detective Charles M. Martin both later informed authorities in 1993 and again in 2002 that they suspected a mistake. In light of the later evidence, neither would have presented McAlister’s photo to the victim, nor would they have charged him. However, the requests for McAlister’s pardon in the early 2000s were turned down due to the absence of DNA evidence.
It took Derr’s confession to prove McAlister’s innocence. The pardon came five days before a hearing that could have resulted in McAlister’s indefinite incarceration as a violent sex offender under the Virginia civil commitment law. McAlister’s voice was not heard for nearly 30 years.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe made the right call in pardoning McAllister after overwhelming evidence was acknowledged. However, it’s disturbing that it took overwhelming evidence to prove a man’s innocence.
Has sufficient evidence become insufficient? While McAlister receives the pardon he deserves from the justice system, it’s clear the justice system does not deserve the same pardon from McAlister and his family. The justice system, preaching justice, has failed to deliver it to a man for 29 years of his life — 29 years he will never get back.
nywu@indiana.edu
