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Murder charges were sacked on Thursday against a man who spent 15 years in prison for the deaths linked to the fire of five children in the suburbs Detroit, the culmination of an investigation which uncovered misconduct on the part of police and prosecutors.
Juwan Deering, 50, will not face a second trial, said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. A judge granted his request to drop the case against him, a week after Deering’s convictions were dismissed at his request.
Deering entered the courtroom, shackled at the waist, but walked out as a free man without any coercion.
“It’s been an uphill battle,” Deering said moments later, adding that he then wanted “something good to eat”.
McDonald, who was elected in 2020, took a fresh look at Deering’s case at the request of the University of Michigan Law School Innocence Clinic.
Favorable evidence was not shared with his Defence lawyer, and jurors in the 2006 trial were unaware that prison informants received significant benefits for their testimony against Deering, McDonald said.
Deering insisted he was innocent of a fire that killed children at a home in Royal Oak Township in 2000. No one could identify him as being on the property. Authorities at the time said the fire was a revenge for unpaid drug debts.
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In court, the prosecutor said last week that a dozen law enforcement professionals had unanimously determined that there was not enough evidence to link Deering to the fire. The investigation between 2000 and 2006 was “totally compromised by misconduct,” McDonald said.
“There is only one ethical and constitutional remedy,” she said, dropping the case.
Law students had previously tried to secure a new trial for Deering, arguing that the analysis of the fire was based on “junk science.” These requests were unsuccessful in Michigan appeals courts.
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