episode description
Dennis Maher was a young paratrooper living in Lowell, Massachusetts and worked at the army barracks in the neighbouring town of Ayer. On the night of November 17th, 1983 Dennis was walking down the street when a policeman stopped him – he looked like the suspect who had raped a woman earlier that night and the night before. Dennis was taken into police custody, charged with a third rape in Ayer and was identified as the rapist by all three victims. He was sentenced to life in prison and incarcerated at a treatment facility for sexually dangerous prisoners. However, Dennis was innocent, and he knew DNA evidence could prove it. He wrote to the New England Innocence Project who took on his case and sought testing of the rape kits. Witness misidentification and official miscount resulted in nineteen years behind bars for Dennis, devastating both him and the victims. He was exonerated in 2003 and received an apology from his original prosecutor, J.W. Carney, Jr., which helped him move on with his life.
