2014/05/01
Boston Herald April 30, 2014: Rape suspect released as 'twin brother' twist snags prosecutors.
A suspect in two heinous rapes — crimes that had Hub college women frightened to walk alone in the fall of 2004 — left court yesterday a free man because of a rare technicality where DNA tests could not differentiate him from his identical twin.
Dwayne McNair, 33, of Jamaica Plain and Dedham, was released from an eight-count indictment that charged him with raping two young women with an accomplice, Anwar Thomas. Prosecutors attempted to use a newly developed, state-of-the-art DNA test they said could determine whether Dwayne McNair was the rapist. The test is said to be precise enough to distinguish his DNA from that of his identical twin, Dwight McNair.
Dwayne McNair already had been in jail for nearly two years, and Superior Court Judge Christine McEvoy said the test — which could take months to complete — would deprive him of a fair and speedy trial.
“My concern is the delay in the case based on the request being made so late in the case,” McEvoy said, referring to the fact that prosecutors asked for the new DNA test two weeks before yesterday’s trial date. “Those concerns are very much on my mind, and they have been on my mind.” more