Michael Mcalister Case

Michael McAlister was convicted of abduction of a female victim at knifepoint from an apartment complex laundry room at night time in Richmond, VA and rape. The female victim was unable to definitively describe the suspect who attacked and raped her as she could only describe her attacker as someone wielding a knife, a plaid shirt, and she explained that she was only able to get a partial glimpse of her attacker because he was wearing a stocking cap over his face. Her attacker would be later described as a 6 foot tall white male with shoulder length blond hair and a beard; a description that would match Michael McAlister’s appearance. Police then proceeded to ask McAlister to take a picture wearing a plaid shirt for the photo line-up. However,

According to reports, police already had a strong suspicion about Derr’s involvement in prior rapes within the area. However, he was not featured in the photo line-up at the time of the rape nor questioned. In 1988, Norman Bruce Derr was convicted to three consecutive life sentences after being caught for rape and linked to six other cases. The defense attorney reviewing this case believed police should’ve looked harder into Derr as his rapes were described exactly the same way McAlister was accused of; a white male wielding a knife, wearing a plaid shirt and a stocking cap over his face. This case can be portrayed as one of bureaucracy and haste and a failure of police to draw obvious conclusions. (Lithwick,

Because of these factors, it can be argued that the victim was not 100% certain of who her attacker was and that she basically chose Michael McAlister based off of a key feature she remembered that night. McAlister was the only person in the photo line-up wearing a plaid shirt; therefore, the victim assumed McAlister had to be the attacker. The failure to include Norman Bruce Derr who had a close resemblance of McAlister and possibly the real attacker at the time in the line-up also could have played a role in a more accurate choice. Though McAlister was wrongly accused and wrongfully convicted for nearly 3 decades, on May 14th, 2015, Michael McAlister was exonerated and pardoned by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to be set free. (Associated Press,