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After several more weeks, Miller's mug shot from his previous arrest was added to a new photo array. The victim identified his photo and that of another suspect. The police picked up Miller -- who was now many years older and had filled out considerably -- on an unrelated charge of disorderly conduct. They took his picture and included it in another photo array. This time, the victim identified Miller alone as the perpetrator.
The victim saw Miller for the first time in person in the hallway of the courthouse at the pre-trial hearing, where she testified that Miller was her attacker. He claimed that he had never seen her before, had never been in her apartment, and that the case was one of mistaken identity. At trial, the prosecution's case rested almost entirely on the victim's eyewitness testimony after the tests on the physical evidence were deemed inconclusive.
On Dec. 19, 1990, a jury found Miller guilty of aggravated rape while armed, and breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony. He was sentenced to 26-45 years in prison.
In 1998, lawyers with The Innocence Project succeeded in reopening Miller's case and tested the DNA from the semen stains. The results did not match Miller's DNA. In 2000, after 10 years in prison, he was exonerated and released.
For the first year after his release, Miller lived with his sister, Demaris, and her husband, Dana Smith. He struggled unsuccessfully to find work, but was hindered because he was forced to disclose his conviction on job applications. Like many states, Massachusetts doesn't expunge the records of the wrongfully convicted; it seals them. Miller declined to have his record sealed, however, out of fear that prospective employers would suspect he was hiding something.
After years of fruitless job-hunting, he feels defeated. He spends his time playing video games and drinking. "I drink more than I eat, at times," he told FRONTLINE. "I drink more than I laugh. The only bit of solace and peace that I have is drinking."
Understandably, Miller is angry and bitter at his predicament. He has received no monetary compensation from the state, and although the victim sent Miller a letter two years after his release in which she told him that she regrets that he became a "second victim," Miller doesn't consider this a formal apology.
Meanwhile, a man connected with two other rapes has been identified through the state's DNA database as the source of the semen stains on the victim's sheet. The victim, however, does not want to testify in another trial now that so much time has passed, so charges have never been brought against him.
Meanwhile, a bill spearheaded by State Rep. Patricia Jehlen, which would provide compensation for the wrongfully convicted and would force the state to expunge their records, has been pending in the Massachusetts legislature for four years. (See "Compensating the Exonerated" for state-by-state information.) On May 1, 2003, Miller's lawyers filed suit on his behalf in federal court seeking unspecified damages. The suit argues that the police and prosecutors involved in Miller's case misrepresented facts and hid evidence that could have helped exonerate him.
Miller is now on probation after facing two charges of assault and battery while he was drinking -- once while at a liquor store where he formerly worked and another at his sister's house. He lives with another sister and her family in Dorchester, Mass.
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