Commonwealth v. Mathews

A black man forced his way into a white woman’s Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, apartment, held a knife to her throat causing a slight injury, robbed her of her money, bound and gagged her, and began to assault her sexually, stopping only when she told him she had AIDS. The police responded as soon as the assailant left, and the victim provided them with a description. The same day she was shown several hundred photographs. None of the photographs she was shown was of the defendant, and the victim did not identify any of the persons depicted as her assailant. A few days later, the victim saw the…