Two recently exonerated men are enjoying their freedom even though they are stuck indoors due to coronavirus precautions.
Kevin Harrington and George Clark were freed this month after serving 17 years in prison for a crime they insisted they did not commit, according to NBC News. The men’s saga began in September 2002 when the body of Michael Martin was discovered near his Inkster, Michigan, apartment building.
The pair were arrested and charged with the murder based on witness testimony. There was no DNA evidence recovered from the scene that implicated either of the men. Clark was 31 years old and taking care of his ailing mother when he was arrested, and Harrington was a 20-year-old college student.
During their trial, a woman who originally incriminated the men recanted her testimony. She told the court she did not hear any shots nor did she witness the killing despite telling detectives otherwise during a pre-trial interview. Despite the conflicting testimony and lack of physical evidence, Clark and Harrington were found guilty.
Both men spent years trying to clear their names. Clark was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 after he was denied a new trial. Harrington went to trial three more times, resulting in two hung juries and a first-degree murder conviction. He was sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole in 2006. Harrington was offered a plea deal with a 7-year prison stint during his last trial, but he refused to take it.
“My mother always told me something when I was a child: ‘If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,’” Harrington told The Detroit Free Press. “That was something that I could never agree to knowing that I was innocent of this crime.”
Their luck changed in 2016 when the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit opened an investigation into the case. What they found was a “disturbing pattern of behavior from the original lead detective that involved threatening and coercing a number of witnesses.”
The woman who testified during the first trial was coerced into blaming Harrington and Clark for the killing. A transcript of an interview with the woman revealed then-Inkster police Detective Anthony Abdallah threatened the woman’s children.
“We don’t want to leave you here and somebody take your kids, OK?” he told her. Abdallah is currently working as a police officer in suburban Detroit. Inkster Police officials told the media the people involved in the case are no longer employed with the force and they would cooperate with a third-party investigation.
The convictions were thrown out and they will not be retried. Clark was released from Lakeland Correctional on April 9 and Harrington was freed on April 21.
“I really like to call it being kidnapped,” Harrington told NBC News. “Because kidnapping is taking someone somewhere they don’t want to be without their consent and or will.”
His family went to Macomb Correctional Facility to greet him. but he couldn’t go home with them.
Instead, he went to a hotel for a voluntary two-week quarantine since he has elderly relatives. While most people aren’t happy about being sequestered, Harrington is enjoying himself.
“I could eat Grubhub. I could watch Netflix. I get to sleep on a nice comfy bed,” Harrington said. “It’s been beautiful.”
Clark is staying with relatives and practicing social distancing for two weeks. His mother died two years after he was imprisoned.
“I’m enjoying every minute of my freedom,” he said.
Both prisons that housed them had dozens of confirmed diagnoses. Lakeland and Macomb had 393 and 84 confirmed COVID-19 cases, respectively, in a recent tallying.
Both men plan to sue the state using the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. They are seeking $50,000 for every year they spent behind bars.
