On October 26, 1989, a 16-year-old girl, identified as S.D. and her 18-year-old boyfriend, D.K., were in a car near the entrance to Overton Park, known locally as a “lovers lane,” in Memphis, Tennessee. A Black man armed with a knife approached and forced them out of the car.
The man took $20 from D.K. and then marched them into the woods and ordered them to disrobe. He ordered D.K. to lie face down on the ground and then raped S.D. He fled on foot.
The victim and her boyfriend, unable to find their car keys, flagged down a passing car and were driven to the home of her Sunday school teacher. Police were called and the couple was taken to a rape crisis center, where evidence was collected.
The medical exam corroborated the victim’s claim that, prior to the attack, she was a virgin. Semen was visually identified on her blue jeans, which were caked with semen. Examination of the vaginal swabs revealed motile spermatozoa. No testing was performed except for visual inspection and a presumptive screening for seminal fluid, which was positive.
At the time of the attack, police were investigating the possibility of a serial rapist due to a number of robberies and rapes in the Overton Park area. They created a photographic lineup that included a photograph of 22-year-old Clark Jerome McMillan, who had been acquitted in 1978 of a rape charge. At the time of that trial, McMillan was in a wheelchair because he had been shot by a police officer.
When shown the lineup, the victim picked no one and her boyfriend selected a filler.
McMillan was arrested on October 30, 1989, and placed in a live lineup. S.D. identified McMillan as her attacker. Her boyfriend again selected a filler.
McMillan was charged with rape and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Prior to his trial, McMillan told his defense lawyer that another man in the Memphis City Jail, David Boyd, had told McMillan not to worry about being convicted because Boyd “was good for that crime.” However, McMillan’s defense lawyer did nothing with that information.
After Boyd was released and while McMillan was still in jail, he saw newspaper accounts of two additional rapes and robberies and four attempted robbery-rapes in the Overton Park area. McMillan wrote to the prosecution and the judge, informed them of what Boyd had said, and suggested that Boyd be investigated for these additional crimes. His request was ignored.
In May 1980, McMillan, who wore a leg brace and walked with a limp due to the police shooting, went to trial in Shelby County Criminal Court. S.D. and D.K. both identified him as their attacker. Although neither had ever mentioned that their attacker walked with a limp, S.D. now testified that the rapist walked with a limp.
McMillan testified that he was at his sister’s house with his girlfriend at the time of the crime. His sister and girlfriend testified and corroborated his testimony.
On May 15, 1980, the jury convicted McMillan of both charges. He was sentenced to 119 years in prison.
All of his appeals were denied.
In 1996, McMillan contacted the Innocence Project seeking help in obtaining DNA testing. His case was accepted a year later.
Due to the age of the case and a lack of cooperation from his trial defense attorney, tracking down the files and evidence and negotiating a protocol for testing took years.
Kemper Durand, a Memphis defense attorney, became co-counsel with the Innocence Project, and on July 11, 2001, a judge signed an order allowing for DNA testing to be conducted. The evidence was sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
The TBI reported on April 19, 2002 that the testing of the evidence, including the blue jeans and the rape kit swabs excluded McMillan.
The Innocence Project filed a motion to vacate his conviction and to dismiss the charges. On May 2, 2002, with the consent of the District Attorney General, the conviction was vacated and the charges were dismissed.
McMillan was held in prison after his exoneration on an unrelated gun possession charge from 1979, for which he had been given two years in federal prison. The Bureau of Prisons granted him time served and he was freed on May 15, 2002 after spending more than 22 years in prison.
A few months later, the DNA profile from the evidence was submitted to the FBI Combined DNA Information System (CODIS) and it was linked to Boyd, who by that time was in prison in Texas after being convicted of a rape in Houston in 1983.
In 2004, the Tennessee Board of Claims awarded McMillan $832,000 in compensation. He died on October 1, 2017.
— Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-23-2026
