The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the creation of a permanent Conviction Integrity and Expungement Unit to investigate wrongful convictions and help people clear their records.
Missouri may pass bill that can help Jackson County prosecutor free Kevin Strickland Jeanne Kuang and Luke Nozicka, The Kansas City Star
May 12 JEFFERSON CITY On Monday, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Missouri law won t allow her to move to free a Kansas City man she said is innocent.
On Wednesday, legislators were on the brink of passing a bill to give her that power.
Attached to legislation that lifts the Kansas City Police Department s residency requirement and enacts a bipartisan package of criminal justice reforms is a provision allowing local prosecutors to ask a judge to throw out convictions in innocence cases.
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This Wayne County, Michigan, program is helping exonerate people for crimes they didn t commit. Now it s going statewide
By Sahar Akbarzai, CNN
Updated 4:19 PM ET, Mon March 1, 2021
From left, Kevin Harrington, Larry Smith and Bernard Howard were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned before being exonerated through the Wayne County Conviction Integrity Unit. (CNN)After spending more than 26 years in prison for a murder he didn t commit, Larry Smith was released February 4 through the Conviction Integrity Unit at the Wayne County Prosecutor s Office in Michigan.
The feeling, Smith said, is amazing, a God-given blessing.
Smith is one of 27 wrongly convicted individuals who have been exonerated through the unit since it was established in 2018 by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym D. Worthy.