Justice may be blind, but sometimes she’s downright wrong! Innocent people end up in prison too.
An entire generation has been born, grown up, and gone on to have their own children since Ledura Watkins was sentenced to prison for First Degree Murder. For over 40 years he has lived life behind bars, convicted for a crime that he didn’t commit, on the strength of a single hair found at the crime scene.
In 1975, 25-year-old Yvette Ingram was shot and killed during a robbery at her home in Detroit. A detective found a single hair at the scene, which a lab analyst later tied to Watkins by way of visual comparison. At the time, it was considered enough to convict him, and in 1976 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a lifetime in prison. Watkins has been fighting ever since.
The Innocence Project at Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School took up his case recently, and argued that the evidence used to convict Watkins was substandard based on the science today. As Marla Mitchell-Cichon, WMU’s Innocence Project director, points out: hair comparison is not actual science. “It’s nothing more than a lab analyst’s subjective opinion and has no place in our criminal justice system. This is why a state-wide review of hair follicle comparison cases is critical.” Mitchell-Cichon said in a statement released after Watkins was released. After all, under the new FBI standard for hair comparison, Watkin’s conviction simply couldn’t hold up scientifically.
The Wayne County prosecutor’s office agreed that Watkins had been unfairly convicted and asked the court to set aside his conviction. It has taken 41 years, but Watkins is finally free. Sadly, he has lost decades of his life to an unjust conviction, but Watkins isn’t wasting time lamenting his losses. Instead, he is focused on his gains. At this point, he says, what he is looking forward to more than anything, is sharing a meal with his family, preferably at a Chinese restaurant.
Watkins is the second person to be freed after the efforts of the Cooley Law School innocence project paid off in recent weeks. Desmond Ricks walked out of prison a free man last month, after having served 25 years for allegedly murdering one of his friends outside a restaurant in Detroit. Two bullets removed from the victim were analyzed, at which point it became clear that they didn’t match the gun prosecutors had claimed Ricks used.
As Michigan criminal defense attorneys, we have dedicated our careers to defending innocent people, and people accused of crimes they didn’t commit. Wrongful convictions are devastating and life-altering. The best way to ensure that this never happens to you, is to ensure that you have the best defense right from the very start. At The Kronzek Firm, we have decades of experience protecting and defending people from all types of charges and accusations.
Don’t wait and hope that the prosecutor’s office will figure out the facts, or make the mistake of believing that the truth is all the defense you need. Being falsely accused of a crime is a very serious situation, and the way to avoid being wrongfully convicted of something you didn’t do, is to ensure that your attorney is experienced, aggressive, hard working, and dedicated. In other words, make sure that your attorney is from The Kronzek Firm. Call us today at 866 766 5245. We are here for you.