Tag: exonerations

Worthy promises deeper look at past convictions after system failures exposed – Detroit Metro Times

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Monday she plans to conduct more sweeping, system-wide reviews of past convictions after a newly released report detailed how an innocent Detroit man spent nearly nine years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

The report lays out how numerous failures across the justice system led to the wrongful conviction of Eric Anderson, who was arrested in 2010 based solely on a single eyewitness identification later found to be unreliable. Anderson was exonerated in 2019 after another man confessed.

“I think when mistakes are made it’s prudent to determine how and why they were made to ensure they are not made in the future,” Worthy said at a news conference Monday. “I like that this review is done in a blame-free environment to get to the heart of the problem. I am hopeful that the adoption of these recommendations will help prevent future wrongful convictions and increase public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

The 54-page review was conducted by the Wayne County Sentinel Event Review Team, a first-of-its-kind coalition of prosecutors, Detroit police, defense attorneys, judges, and innocence advocates coordinated by the University of Pennsylvania’s Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a nonpartisan group designed to prevent errors in the criminal justice system. The group spent 18 months reviewing every stage of Anderson’s case, from an uncorroborated, high-risk identification to rushed pretrial hearings and missed investigative steps, to determine how each part of the system failed.

Eric Anderson (left) served nine years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery, and Eron Shellman served 32 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder. Today the men support the work of the Organization of Exonerees, which held its third annual gala Oct. 27 in Detroit. Credit: Courtesy photo

“By bringing stakeholders together across agencies, we can trace how a case progressed through the system, identify the points where checks and balances failed, and develop reforms that strengthen accuracy at every level,” John Hollway, senior advisor to the Quattrone Center, said. “This process was not adversarial. Everyone came to the table wanting to learn.”

The review identified 40 contributing factors and 25 recommendations, including strengthening eyewitness identification procedures, improving investigative documentation, exploring alibi evidence earlier, enhancing training for attorneys, and ensuring key witnesses are secured before trial.

Valerie Newman, director of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, called the process “prickly at times” but necessary.

“Mr. Anderson’s wrongful conviction resulted from systemic breakdowns despite the good-faith efforts of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and jurors,” Newman said. “The review underscores that eyewitness misidentification remains one of the most powerful drivers of wrongful conviction. Strengthening procedures around identifications is essential to ensuring that the system protects the innocent and holds the guilty accountable.”

Worthy launched the Conviction Integrity Unit in 2017. Since then, the office has secured relief for 43 people, most of whom were serving life sentences.

“We do over 60% of all the cases in the state,” Worthy said of her office’s criminal case load. “We can always be better and do better, and we are committed to doing so.”

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said the department welcomes the scrutiny.

“My mantra is continuous improvement,” Bettison said. “I welcomed the review from the beginning. I’m all in. I would encourage other law enforcement agencies to do the same.”

Newman said the importance of such reviews is learning what went wrong.

“We have to learn the lessons,” Newman said. “Nobody becomes a police officer or a prosecutor to put an innocent person in prison. But these mistakes happen.”

Even as Worthy pledged more systemic reviews, families of men convicted under controversial former Detroit homicide detective Barbara Simon say they’re still waiting for the same level of transparency and urgency.

Simon has been accused in lawsuits of using coercive interrogations, fabricating evidence, and relying on unconstitutional tactics that have led to at least 18 federal lawsuits, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. Four of those lawsuits have cost taxpayers roughly $25 million in taxpayer-funded settlements.

More than a year after Metro Times exposed widespread misconduct tied to Simon, and after Wayne County acknowledged that thousands of old case files were illegally destroyed before Worthy took office, families say they’ve seen little movement.

In a new civil rights complaint filed with the DOJ, exoneree Lamarr Monson, who was wrongfully convicted based on a false confession Simon secured, warns that dozens of people remain imprisoned because of her tactics.

“To this day, men whose convictions were tied to Simon remain incarcerated, unable to secure justice due to lost files, missing evidence, and institutional resistance,” Monson wrote. “Simon’s history is not an anomaly — it is symptomatic of a department that rewarded abusive tactics while ignoring accountability.”

Advocates say the sweeping review of Anderson’s case shows what can happen when police, prosecutors, courts, and defense agencies collaborate honestly to figure out what went wrong. Now they want the same commitment applied to Simon-linked convictions, many of which cannot be fully reviewed because critical records were destroyed under former prosecutor Mike Duggan, Detroit’s current mayor.

Worthy said she is reviewing patterns and trends and remains committed to freeing the innocent, but families say they are still waiting for concrete action.

Protesters gathered outside the prosecutor’s office in October to call on Worthy’s office to meet with the families of inmates who say they were wrongfully convicted because of Simon. Worthy offered to meet with them but has since backed down.

Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 for a murder he didn’t commit, says Worthy’s office has an obligation to investigate all of Simon’s cases.

“It seems like Worthy forgot about Barbara Simon,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “But we haven’t forgotten, and we’re calling on the prosecutor to meet with the families. Too many innocent people are in prison because of Barbara Simon.”

Worthy didn’t mention Simon by name, but said the CIU is reviewing cases tied “that have patterns and trends.”

“I welcome more of these types of cases,” Worthy said. “My job is to ensure no one else has to go through what Mr. Anderson did.”

For many families still fighting to overturn wrongful convictions, that promise may now be the most important part of the report.

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Steve Neavling

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November 17, 2025
Michigan AG not investigating illegal destruction of Wayne County prosecutor files

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Steve Neavling

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is now located at the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center in Detroit.

Thousands of files belonging to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office were illegally destroyed, but a week after Metro Times reported on the unlawful purge, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office says it is not investigating the case.

The destruction of prosecutor files has made it exceedingly difficult for wrongfully convicted inmates to demonstrate their innocence.

Between 2001 and 2004, while Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was prosecutor, most if not all misdemeanor and felony records from 1995 and earlier were removed from an off-site warehouse and destroyed, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. During that time, Attorney General Dana Nessel worked in the prosecutor’s office.

Duggan adamantly denies he was involved.

In Michigan, prosecutors are required to retain the files of defendants serving life sentences for at least 50 years or until the inmate dies. Violating the law carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

It’s not entirely clear why Nessel’s office isn’t investigating, but a spokesman says no complaints have been filed.

“Our department does not have an active investigation into the matter,” Danny Wimmer, spokesperson for Nessel, told Metro Times in a statement Tuesday. “I am unaware of any criminal complaint or request to investigate being filed with or referred to our office.”

Wimmer has not yet responded to Metro Times’s follow-up questions.

Any Michigan resident can file a complaint about the destruction of records by filling out this form on the Michigan Attorney General’s website.

Nessel’s office investigated Duggan’s administration in the past but declined to file charges. In October 2019, the Detroit Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said top officials in Duggan’s administration ordered the deletion of emails related to the nonprofit Make Your Date, which was run by the mayor’s now-wife. But Nessel declined to file charges in April 2021, saying the “facts and evidence in this case simply did not substantiate criminal activity.”

More than two dozen prisoners interviewed by Metro Times say they are innocent, but the destruction of the prosecutor’s files has severely hindered their ability to get a new trial.

The file purge involved records from a deeply problematic period in Detroit’s Homicide Division when rampant misconduct, coerced confessions, and constitutional violations by police, particularly homicide detectives, were so widespread that the U.S. Department of Justice intervened, pressing for reforms to avoid a costly lawsuit in the early 2000s. This era of misconduct led to a significant number of wrongful convictions and false confessions, evidenced by a surge in exonerations and court settlements.

Legal experts say many innocent people remain incarcerated, but the destruction of the prosecutor’s files has compromised many of their cases, leaving some prisoners without a clear path to proving their innocence.

Eugene McKinney, a 54-year-old Detroiter who has been in prison since he was convicted of arson and first-degree murder in 1997, says he has compelling evidence to prove he’s innocent. But without the prosecutor’s files, he says, he has little recourse.

Someone needs to be held accountable for the file purge, McKinney says.

“They need to be prosecuted because they are withholding some important evidence that could exonerate me,” McKinney says from Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian.

Steve Neavling

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October 2, 2024
Exonerated men demand criminal probe of ex-Detroit detective accused of misconduct

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Steve Neavling

Mark Craighead (left) and Lamarr Monson were both exonerated of murder.

Two men who were exonerated of murder implored Detroit police on Thursday to investigate a former homicide detective who is accused of two decades of misconduct that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment.

Mark Craighead, who spent more than seven years in prison after falsely confessing to murder in June 2000, alleges retired Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

Simon was featured in “The Closer,” a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

“We missed out on so much time with our families, and she’s still walking the streets and collecting a pension. She’s still free,” Craighead said in a news conference outside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters. “We’re demanding accountability. We want her arrested.”

Craighead was joined by former Detroit Police Commissioner Reginald Crawford and Lamarr Monson, who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Monson blames Simon for bungling the investigation in 1996.

Crawford said everyone who was complicit in the wrongful convictions needs to pay a price.

“They need to say to the world and to the media, ‘These are the people responsible for the wrongful convictions. They will be held accountable,’” Crawford said.

Craighead filed a criminal complaint against Simon with the Detroit Police Department on Sept. 4, and DPD said it would investigate.

Craighead said he’s committed to freeing innocent people who are still in prison because of Simon.

“They’ll be in prison for the rest of their lives unless we do something about it,” Craighhead said.

On Aug. 28, the exonerees and families of prisoners rallied outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, calling for an independent and extensive review of all of Simon’s cases. Earlier this month, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she plans to expand a unit dedicated to exonerating innocent people by hiring an attorney to review Simon’s cases.

Craighead said it shouldn’t have taken so long for Simon to come under scrutiny.

“Barbara Simon should have been investigated a long time ago,” Craighead said. “They knew what she was doing.”

Steve Neavling

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September 19, 2024
Exonerated man files criminal complaint against former Detroit detective featured in Metro Times series

Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against the Detroit detective who elicited his false confession in June 2000.

Craighead alleges former Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

Simon was the subject of a two-part Metro Times series that exposed her aggressive and illegal tactics that led to false confessions and wrongful imprisonment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Simon was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her method of confining young Black men to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men.

Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of her actions, activists and lawyers say.

Craighead filed the complaint with the Detroit Police Department, alleging cops, prosecutors, and judges looked the other way while Simon repeatedly committed crimes and violated the rights of Black Detroiters.

“What she did was criminal,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “If one of us did that, we’d be in jail. Yet Barabra Simon is still walking the streets. She should have been arrested.”

Craighead pointed to a bombshell statement by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Shannon Walker when she granted him a new trial in February 2021. She said Simon “has a history of falsifying confessions and lying under oath” and that Craighead’s case demonstrated “a common scheme of misconduct.”

“Not only has this Court already found statements obtained by Simon not to be credible, but so too has the Michigan Supreme Court,” Walker said.

“This impeachment evidence demonstrates that Simon has repeatedly lied as part of her misconduct, which would allow a jury to evaluate whether to trust her testimony in light of information demonstrating a character of truthfulness,” Walker added.

The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed with Walker.

Craighead says the courts’ acknowledgements that Simon committed a pattern of crimes should have prompted an investigation.

“It’s very powerful,” Craighead says of Walker’s statements. “That tells you that the courts and prosecutors know about her. So why hasn’t she been investigated? Now that I filed a complaint, they have to look into it.”

At a Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Thursday, Commissioner Willie Burton asked why DPD wasn’t investigating Simon after the Metro Times series was published in July.

Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald claimed the department was unaware of the allegations, despite the courts’ allegations and those made by numerous suspects and witnesses. In fact, Simon has been sued by four exonerated men, and each lawsuit laid out very specific allegations of criminal misconduct against her. Two of the lawsuits have been settled for an average of $8 million apiece.

“I have not seen any of these complaints or allegations,” Fitzgerald told Burton.

Burton responded that the alleged crimes occurred while Simon was a DPD employee and asked whether the department would investigate.

“If those allegations are brought forward to us, yes, but they have not been,” Fitzgerald said.

His response prompted Craighead to file the complaint.

Craighead was assisted in filing the complaint by former police commissioner Reginald Crawford, a former Detroit officer and Wayne County sheriff’s deputy.

“There can never be justice without accountability,” Crawford tells Metro Times. “DPD and everyone involved needs to be held accountable.”

The complaint is just the latest action taken in the last month by Craighead, other exonerees, and families of inmates who say they were wrongfully imprisoned because of Simon’s misconduct.

On Aug. 28, exonerees and family members of inmates marched outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an independent investigation of all of Simon’s cases.

In a written statement, Prosecutor Kym Worthy responded that she has “been working on a monetary way to address this situation.”

“I will know more after my budget hearing on September 5th,” Worthy said. “I should be able to discuss this in more detail after the hearing.”

The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which helped free four inmates who were victimized by Simon’s conduct, said many more innocent people are likely in prison because of the former detective.

“All of the family members I talk to ask me, ‘Why isn’t Barbara Simon in jail?’” Craighead says. “Everyone knew this was happening, and no one did anything about it.”

In 2000, Simon accused Craighead of fatally shooting his friend three years earlier. He was locked in a small room for hours without a warrant or access to an attorney, food, or phone call. When he refused to incriminate himself, he was held in a vermin-infested jail cell.

A day later, Craighead says Simon falsely claimed they had evidence tying him to the murder. They did not. He ended up signing a confession that Simon wrote after she claimed he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he didn’t admit to a story she concocted, according to his lawsuit.

“I was tired, dirty. I had a migraine,” Craighead said on the local podcast ML Soul of Detroit after the Metro Times series ran. “Everything was going wrong. I was terrified.”

Phone records later showed that Craighead was working at Sam’s Club at the time of the shooting, which resulted in his exoneration.

Steve Neavling

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September 4, 2024
Pressure mounts on Wayne County prosecutor to investigative detective’s misconduct cases featured in Metro Times series

The Detroit Police Department said it’s “fully committed to cooperating” with prosecutors to review cases handled by a former police detective who terrorized young Black men for nearly two decades.

The former detective, Barbara Simon, was featured in a two-part series in Metro Times that revealed she had confined young suspects and witnesses to small rooms at police headquarters for hours without a warrant. She elicited false confessions and witness statements that were later recanted.

So far, four men have been exonerated for murders they didn’t commit, and a fifth was released from jail after DNA showed he wasn’t the killer.

Attorneys for the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which handled the cases, say many more people are likely imprisoned for murders they didn’t commit because of Simon’s investigative misconduct.

“If true, the allegations against retired Detective Simon are concerning,” Detroit police spokesperson Dayna Clark told Metro Times in a statement. “The Department is fully committed to cooperating with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which is empowered to examine the legitimacy of convictions.”

However, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is running unopposed for reelection this year, wasn’t as enthusiastic.

“It would be irresponsible of me to respond at this time without gathering more information,” Worthy said in a statement.

In the series, Metro Times found multiple people still imprisoned who say Simon either coerced them into making false confessions or were convicted based on statements from witnesses who were threatened. Defense attorneys, activists, and private investigators say evidence is strong that more Black men are behind bars after getting interrogated by Simon.

Only a prosecutor or judge has the authority to reexamine cases involving potentially innocent people. In each of the exoneration cases involving Simon, Worthy’s office tried to prevent the men from getting free, despite overwhelming evidence that they were innocent.

Worthy launched the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) in 2018 to review old cases to determine if people were wrongfully convicted. Since then, 38 inmates were either exonerated or their cases were dismissed as a result of the CIU. A disproportionate number of those cases – 13 – occurred in 2020, the year Worthy was running against a reform-oriented opponent.

But this year, Worthy is running unopposed, and the CIU has only been involved in getting new trials for two men. Valerie Newman, head of the CIU, acknowledged the unit is understaffed, though she said there were plans to hire more attorneys.

None of the cases that the CIU intervened in involved Simon, who worked closely with Worthy’s office in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Simon, who was known as “the closer” because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements, was a detective in the 1990s and early 2000s, when the U.S. Department of Justice found that homicide detectives trampled on the constitutional rights of suspects and witnesses for decades to get confessions. According to the DOJ, the department had a history of subjecting suspects and witnesses to false arrests, illegal detentions, and abusive interrogations. Despite what was at stake, the detectives weren’t properly trained, and bad cops were rarely disciplined, the DOJ concluded.

In 2003, to avoid a massive civil rights lawsuit claiming suspects and witnesses endured false arrests, unlawful detentions, fabricated confessions, excessive force, and unconstitutional conditions of confinement, the Detroit Police Department agreed to DOJ oversight in 2003. Because of the harsh interrogation tactics, DPD agreed in 2006 to videotape interrogations of all suspects in crimes that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

After 13 years of federal government scrutiny, the DOJ finally ended its oversight, but only after DPD agreed to sweeping changes in a consent decree to overhaul its arrest, interrogation, and detention policies. Detectives could no longer round up witnesses and force them to answer questions at police precincts and headquarters.

At no point since those findings have prosecutors or police tried to reexamine the cases during that troubling period.

And, it’s unclear why Worthy is not pursuing those cases. Other cities, including New York and Chicago, have conducted wholesale investigations of corrupt detectives, leading to numerous exonerations.

In response to the Metro Times series, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners called on the police department to conduct a thorough investigation of all of Simon’s cases. Detroit Police Deputy Chief Tiffany Stewart responded that it’s ultimately the CIU’s responsibility to review the cases.

Worthy told Metro Times on Monday, “With all due respect, DC Stewart is not in a position to task the CIU with work.”

Mark Craighead, who was exonerated in 2022 after spending more than seven years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, says Worthy has a moral responsibility to review Simon’s cases.

“I think it’s important for both the police department and prosecutors to work together to get this done,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “Those entities have the capability to right the wrongs, and the police can’t do it alone. They have to get the prosecutors involved.”

In June 2000, without a warrant, Simon confined Craighead to a small room at police headquarters for hours, denying him access to an attorney, phone call, food, or water, he said in a lawsuit against the city. When he refused to speak, he was forced to spend the night in a vermin-infested jail cell.

The next morning, Simon claimed she had evidence tying Craighead to the murder, which turned out to be untrue, and she coerced him into falsely confessing to accidentally shooting his friend during a fight, according to his lawsuit. The false confession was contradicted by forensic evidence, which showed his friend was shot four times in the back execution-style from a distance of at least two feet.

Phone records later showed Craighead was nowhere near his friend when he was murdered.

Craighead says he’s disappointed with Worthy.

“She’s unwilling to budge, and that’s a problem,” he says. “For the young guys in prison, they need this. The evidence is indisputable that they are innocent. Why can’t the prosecutor see this? She’s unwilling to.”

Craighead and the Metro Times series were featured in a nearly 90-minute episode this week on ML Soul of Detroit, a podcast by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter M.L. Elrick.

Detroit police say they have cleaned up the homicide division when they signed an agreement with the Department of Justice in the early 2000s.

“Many of the issues underlying the practices of concern were addressed by the city in the course of its two consent judgements,” Clark says.

Steve Neavling

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August 7, 2024