LANSING (WWJ/AP) A Michigan man is free after 16 years behind bars for multiple murders that he did not commit, as corroborated by new evidence.
A judge exonerated Corey McCall Friday morning. He walked into freedom, holding his wife's hand.
McCall had been serving multiple sentences at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia including life without parole, after a jury convicted him on a long list of charges including three pre-meditated murders and home invasion.
The Western Michigan Cooley Law School Innocence Project, credited with freeing nearly 400 wrongfully convicted people, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit helped to highlight the evidence that ultimately vacated McCall’s conviction and coordinate new DNA analysis from the crime scene.
He was convicted on three murders during a home invasion in Benton Harbor, on the west side of the state. The youngest victim, who was shot in the head, was just 12 years old.
“On March 26 2005, police arrived at the scene to find two people and a third person on the front lawn who was later pronounced dead,” Nessel said. “There was one surviving victim who testified that four armed men broke into the house, robbed them at gunpoint, and shot all four victims.”
The sole survivor had identified McCall as one of the gunmen after seeing him for “one or two seconds during the crime,” according to Nessel.
McCall told the court he was at Walmart at the time. However, trial testimony from Walmart employees refuted his alibi.
Over a decade later, new evidence emerged that McCall was not responsible. Nessel’s office said it started after receiving a letter from another inmate declaring McCall’s innocence and knowledge of who truly committed the crime.
“So, we spoke to that person, and everything took off from there,” Assistant Attorney General Robyn Frankel said.
Walmart receipts and an old cellphone, which was forensically investigated, ultimately corroborated McCall's alibi. The Conviction Integrity Unit also interviewed a number of new witnesses who were not talked in 2005.
The results of the latest investigation have been turned over to prosecutors to bring the real killers to justice.
Today, McCall is free.
“There’s no act that can fully rectify the injustice done to Mr. McCall,” Nessel said. “But I hope today begins a new chapter for him.”