Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
After nearly ten years in prison, a man convicted of murder in 2000 has been freed from prison and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is likely to dismiss all the charges against him. Dwayne Provience was convicted on the word of a single eyewitness who has since recanted his testimony and remained in prison until the Michigan Innocence Clinic, a project at the University of Michigan Law School, got involved and won his freedom.
The Innocence Clinic has produced a Youtube video about the incident that explains how they first got involved in the case, how they became convinced that Provience was innocent and how they ultimately managed to convince the court and the prosecutor's office that the wrong man had been convicted and imprisoned for the crime.
Interestingly, this case does not involve DNA testing. That is the most common manner for exonerating a wrongly convicted person, but in this case there was no DNA to test. But even without that powerful evidence, the clinic uncovered massive problems in the investigation and trial record and were able to prove that Provience had been railroaded.
A press release from the clinic details some of the problems:
On March 24, 2000, Rene Hunter was shot to death in broad daylight at the corner of Greenfield and Pembroke in northwest Detroit. At least seven people, including an off-duty police officer, witnessed the murder. Nearly all of them saw two black men in a grey Chevy Caprice fire multiple shots at Hunter, and then take off northbound on Greenfield Road.Three months later police picked up a drug addict named Larry Wiley on a breaking and entering charge. While in custody, Wiley offered police a break in the Hunter murder. He claimed to have been present at the scene of the crime.
Unlike the other eyewitnesses who saw the killers in a grey four-door Chevy Caprice, Wiley said the shooters were in a beige two-door Buick Regal. Unlike the other eyewitnesses who saw the murderers flee northbound on Greenfield Road, Wiley said they went westbound on Pembroke Avenue. And unlike eyewitnesses who heard multiple gunshots, Wiley heard just one. He told the police Dwayne and his brother De-Al Provience were the shooters.
Prosecutors put Wiley on the stand to tell his tale. He was the only witness to implicate Dwayne Provience and his brother De-Al. None of the other seven eyewitnesses were called by Dwayne's lawyer, who has since been disbarred. Prosecutors argued Dwayne and De-Al Provience killed Hunter to protect their drug turf. De-Al was acquitted by the judge while Dwayne, whose case was tried to a jury instead of the judge, was convicted and sentenced to 30-60 years behind bars.
That single witness has since recanted and passed a polygraph. He is in the Youtube clip explaining why he lied on the stand after being picked up for a drug offense. Here's the video:
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Comments
Wow... just, wow... How the hell did this happen? And what's worse, I'm sure that the judge who acquitted De-Al was painted as a spineless liberal for not throwing the book at him like the jury did at DuWayne.
Disgusting!
Posted by: doctorgoo | November 27, 2009 1:45 PM
This sounds more like a case of incompetent defense than anything. It didn't occur to the defense to call in a few of those seven people?
Posted by: Brandon | November 27, 2009 6:34 PM
Doctorgoo -
That would be Dwayne, not me or the Jack in the Box server I met in Vancouver - nor a blues musician in NYC, who uses my spelling as his stage name. The only three people I have ever found outside of Germany with that spelling.
Brandon -
Probably a public defender or someone catching up on their pro bono duties. They often assume that the client is guilty, nothing said client says will convince them otherwise. Why waste the time? They are usually just irritated that their "client" refuses to fucking plea.
Part of the brokenness of the system...
Posted by: DuWayne | November 27, 2009 8:44 PM
DuWayne:
Thank you for participating here, and congratulations for finally overcoming such an appalling miscarriage of justice.
We're hearing about too many people being released after wrongful convictions. This points to something being terribly wrong with our system, from the cops on the scene to the courts--judges, lawyers and juries--so many of them are incompetent and/or corrupt. Too many mistakes are being made, and sometimes I think it's willfully.
I'm losing my trust in the jury system. In every case where the wrong person was convicted and sent to prison (or worse), there wasn't a single jury member who said, "Wait a minute...?" Not a single one who wasn't willing to take the chance of hanging a jury? They all either believed each innocent person was guilty, or were too cowardly to stand up to whoever the strongest personality on the jury was, who happened to think the accused was guilty?
There is a rot in this country, and I'm starting to think it derives from the glorification of stupid in this nation.
Posted by: Aquaria | November 28, 2009 2:48 AM
Re Aquaria
Wrong DuWayne. The gentleman who comments as DuWayne here is DuWayne Brayton who is Mr. Ed Braytons' brother.
Posted by: SLC | November 28, 2009 7:28 AM
Doctorgoo, your assertion that Public Defenders or someone doing pro bono often assume that their client is guilty and that nothing a client says will convince them is way off the mark. Lawyers who join the Public Defender's Office are the true believers in the Constitution and in their clients. Public Defenders join the office not for the riches that a law degree can provide, but to defend the indigent. It is true that clients will often lie, but then these are the same people who would lie to their private attorneys. Public Defenders have to deal with the opprobrium of ignorant people who just assume that they do a terrible job and that they represent the damned who do not deserve any defense whatsoever. It is very common to see private attorneys take a case after being paid thousands of dollars from the family only to dump their clients when the family can't come up with any more. Public Defenders are then stuck with a case where the private attorney was incompetent and didn't do anything that a Public Defender, who knows the system and specializes in criminal law, would have done in the beginning. Private attorneys do not have the edge on competency. In fact, private attorneys are the ones who want to plead out cases and force their clients to take a deal because as long as the private attorney is in court on one matter, he isn't making money on other potential matters. Public Defenders have the luxury of devoting court time to one client at a time. Granted, the case loads can be high, but PDs don't just dump their clients. If they become known as dump trucks, their supervisors will know about it and there will be consequences. Your knowledge of the system is doubtless influenced by TV shows and right wing radio.
Posted by: Shmice | November 28, 2009 4:38 PM
There is a rot in this country, and I'm starting to think it derives from the glorification of stupid in this nation.
It's not so much "glorification of stupid" as "denigration of thought".
The jury system presumes that people will vote based on personal conscience, and that they perceive themselves as being justified in doing so. If the prevailing culture denigrates personal judgment in favor of unconditional submission to perceived authority figures, a juror may feel compelled to fall in line with the views of the police and prosecution, or even feel that his own doubts are a personal failing rather than an indication of a problem with their case.
Posted by: Epsilon Perseii VIII | November 28, 2009 8:14 PM
As an aside, I'd like to ask Ed a question: do you have any thoughts on the Japanese practice of using 3-judge panels for all cases, rather than just at the appellate level? It would seem to reduce the dangers involved with having so much of the proceeding hang on the judgement of a single individual.
Posted by: Epsilon Perseii VIII | November 28, 2009 8:24 PM
Whoops, missed the open thread.
Posted by: Epsilon Perseii VIII | November 28, 2009 9:14 PM