(WWJ) Two Michigan men who prosecutors say were victims of police misconduct were freed after almost two decades in prison thanks to a special unit of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
This week, Judge Shannon Walker dismissed murder charges against Kevin Harrington and George Clark based upon newly discovered evidence and information that detectives in the case ignored the evidence and coerced witnesses.
Exoneration came as a result of a six month investigation by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), headed by Director Valerie Newman.
But the men at the center of the story didn't get their moment of jubilation in court due to these strange pandemic times: Harrington and Clark were not able to be present in court for the hearing due to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, Harrington was released from prison on April 21, 2020. Clark was released on bond from prison on April 8, 2020.
"I'm through the roof at this moment," Harrington told the Free Press from his hotel, where he was in self-quarantine. "I feel just so amazingly blessed. I'm doing awesome."
They've been incarcerated since September 2002, when Michael Martin was shot to death in a field across from the apartment where he lived in Inkster. A witness who at first denied witnessing the event, eventually told the police after hours of questioning that they saw George Clark and Kevin Harrington physically assault Mr. Martin, drag him into the field and heard shots fired.
"There was no physical evidence linking Mr. Clark and Mr. Harrington to the shooting," the prosecutor's office wrote in a press release.
Still, in February 2003, Harrington and Clark were convicted of first degree murder, and went to prison.
In 2019 and 2020, the CIU conducted a six month investigation of the cases, found new witnesses and evidence of a a "disturbing pattern of behavior from the original lead detective that involved threatening and coercing a number of witnesses," the prosecutor's office wrote. "The CIU investigation has established that Mr. Harrington and Mr. Clark did not receive a fair trial as a result of the conduct of the original lead detective."
And it's not the end of the story, prosecutors are recommending that the Inkster Police Department contact an outside agency to investigate this case.
The CIU has interviewed other witnesses who claimed they were threatened and coerced by the detective. "The charges in the case were dismissed because the issues with the original lead detective were such that the conduct materially impacted the integrity of the verdict," the prosecutor's office wrote.
