The Michigan Innocence Clinic has secured the release of three clients from prison this year, two of whom were exonerated. Desmond Ricks, who, in 1992, was charged with murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison, was released in May.
Following re-examination of evidence at the clinic’s urging, tests showed that the original conviction relied on false evidence, and prosecutors agreed the conviction should be overturned. He is pictured with Michigan Innocence Clinic Director David Moran, ’91.
Marwin McHenry also was released from prison in May following the approval by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Bill of a request to vacate the charges against him. McHenry had been convicted by a jury and sentenced in October 2013 to serve 16 to 27 years in prison on charges stemming from a July 2012 shooting that left one woman wounded.
And after spending 21 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Lamarr Monson became a free man in August when Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker dismissed a first-degree murder charge against him, after a request by prosecutors. Monson was convicted in 1997 of the murder of 12-year-old Christina Brown in Detroit. Monson is the 16th client to be freed by the clinic’s efforts, and is the clinic’s 13th full exoneration.
