State of Michigan to pay $1.75m to an innocent man who spent 35 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of sexual assault
Louis Wright spent 35 years in a Michigan prison for a crime he did not commit. He was released in November after DNA tests ruled him out as the perpetrator of a sex attack on an 11-year-old girl in Albion, MI. Mr. Wright is now 65. Not only did he lose his freedom for 35 years, the perpetrator of this crime was never caught and if still alive, probably committed numerous sex crimes in those same 35 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/12/payment-louis-wright-wrongful-conviction-michigan
Wright was eligible for parole beginning in 2008 but refused to take a sex offender therapy class because he did not commit this crime. He said he knew he would be cleared when he gave a DNA sample last summer.
In Michigan, people exonerated based on new evidence are eligible for $50,000 for each year spent in a Michigan prison. According to The Guardian article, “[t]he attorney general’s office sometimes resists paying, based on strict criteria in the law.” Fuck you, Michigan. Your laws limit liability in wrongful conviction cases, and you abuse your discretion by going easy on pedophile priests.
DNA exonerated Mr. Wright. Does Michigan plan to tell the public if there is a DNA match to the actual perpetrator?
Compare the recent wrongful conviction settlement for $25 million in the North Carolina case of Ronnie Long.
Long’s case is particularly egregious, but some of the factors that led to his imprisonment are still causing wrongful convictions today according to experts. Those factors include: official misconduct, perjury, false accusation, false or misleading forensic evidence, false (coerced) confession, mistaken witness identification, and inadequate legal defense. Official misconduct and perjury are the leading factors.
Money is the only language state, county and city agencies speak. They are going to continue to have to pay for past wrongs; let’s hope it cleans up their current acts. Mr. Wright has filed a lawsuit against police for violating his rights during the 1988 investigation.
L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson and their enablers violated my 11-year-old brother’s civil rights in 1977. Tim has spent the last almost 47 years dead. Not one person stepped forward to tell the truth about why this case has never been solved.
Wrongful conviction cases and innocence projects are extremely important. So are public corruption cases and what I refer to as “guilt” projects.
Another very disturbing Michigan case
It was 14 years ago today that JoAnn Matouk Romain disappeared after attending an evening prayer service at the Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Farms. Her body was found on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, 30 miles from the church, 70 days later.
Her death was ruled a suicide, a determination her family has always questioned. The family is offering a $200,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
I didn’t know much at all about this case until I watched an Unsolved Mysteries show, “Lady in the Lake,” which aired in October 2020. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12924500/. There has been a lot written about JoAnn’s case, and a lot of media coverage. To get a relatively full picture of the basis for suspecting foul play in this case, check the links in the clickondetroit write up. Especially the link to this TikTok video. https://www.tiktok.com/@justiceforjoann/video/7187882554496699691 .
I didn’t know a witness, Paul Hawk, had come forward, gave a statement under oath and that police ignored him. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2014/07/17/new-witness-drops-bombshell-in-joann-matouk-romain-death-investigation/ . It is alleged that this man was then harassed by local police for 12 years. I immediately thought of “Sebastian,” who was seriously harassed by Berkley police officers after he came forward as a kid about what he saw at the 7-11 the afternoon Kristine Mihelich was abducted in January 1976. This harassment continued for decades. His story is told in J. Reuben Appelman’s book The Kill Jar: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit’s Most Notorious Serial Killer.
I’ve always believed Sebastian’s story, so don’t even try to tell me police don’t harass witnesses, especially when a cop might be involved. Oh yeah, and Paul Hawk? Unexpectedly passed away at age 55, on December 8, 2021. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/grosse-pointe-woods-mi/paul-hawk-10481236 .
I know, I know–just a coincidence.
If you have information you are withholding in this case you’ve lived 14 years without doing the right thing, so I doubt even $200,000 would motivate you. But good on the family for trying to get answers. A very sad and frustrating case.