Kwame Kilpatrick has once again hit a snag in his quest to have his 28-year prison sentence renounced.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds rejected the appeal from the former mayor of Detroit, who is in his eighth year in prison. Kilpatrick’s motion argued the court made errors during his trial. Among the issues he alleged were incorrect jury instructions, impermissible hearsay and his defense lawyer having a conflict of interest.
DETROIT – SEPTEMBER 4: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appears in Wayne County Circuit Court September 4, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a sex scandal and agreed to resign as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Kilpatrick also agreed to pay $1 million in restitution, forfeit his state pension, give up his law license and serve 120 days in county jail. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Edmunds said the 48-year-old disgraced political figure’s motion failed to show he was unfavored by any supposed errors and he also did not raise some of the issues in a previous appeal, according to The Detroit News.
“Nor can defendant show actual innocence,” Edmunds wrote in her decision. “As this court has previously discussed at length, the evidence at trial weighed heavily in support of the verdicts of guilt against defendant.”
The action was Kilpatrick’s latest move in an attempt to become a free man since he was sent to prison in 2013 following a federal corruption trial. After running a criminal operation from City Hall that included funneling water and sewer contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to contractor and longtime pal Bobby Ferguson, Kilpatrick was found guilty on charges of extortion, bribery, conspiracy and other crimes during his tenure as mayor of Motor City.
Kilpatrick, who was abruptly put out of office in 2008 after a sex scandal involving explicit text exchanges with his then-married chief of staff (he was also married), previously tried to get President Donald Trump to commute his sentence in June 2018. At the time, he had served seven years of his sentence.
“I accepted Christ as my Lord, my Savior, and my Redeemer that day; June 9, 2014. And everything in my life changed!” Kilpatrick wrote in a lengthy Facebook post detailing why he should be granted clemency ” … Yes, I have been punished severely. I have been chained like a wild animal, shacked around my ankles, waist and wrist, with a black box to keep my hands at my side many times. I experienced ridicule, scorn and disrespect from prison staff that you couldn’t imagine.”
Trump did not respond to his request.
