The Innocence clinic of the University of Michigan’s law school represents convicts that were sentenced as guilty when they were innocent. The innocence clinic helps these individuals gather the information for their new trials, or appeals, to prove that they were wrongly convicted of the crime they were charged with. In this case, a man was convicted of fatally shooting two hunters in their back in 1990. Although there were no witnesses to the shooting, and after waiting 11 years, the accused was charged with the murder of these two hunters, and the Innocence clinic is representing the accused because they claim there is evidence that was not allowed to be presented in the original trial in 2001.
KALAMAZOO (AP) — Lawyers for a man convicted of fatally shooting two hunters in the back in 1990 asked a judge Aug. 19 to reopen the case, saying critical evidence that would have helped the defense never surfaced at trial 12 years later.
The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan’s law school is representing Jeff Titus, who is serving a life sentence for the deaths of Doug Estes and Jim Bennett.
They were shot while in the Fulton State Game Area, which was adjacent to Titus’ property in Kalamazoo County. There were no witnesses to the shooting, but trial witnesses said he had a history of aggressively confronting people who entered his land.
Titus, now 62, wasn’t charged until 2001.
“Mr. Titus is innocent and this court should grant him a new trial,” the clinic, led by David Moran, said in a court filing.
“Mr. Titus’ conviction followed a trial in which the jury was only presented with part of the story — a trial in which crucial witnesses were never called, unreliable evidence was never questioned, and exculpatory evidence was never presented,” lawyers said.
County Prosecutor Jeff Getting, who wasn’t in office when Titus went to trial in 2002, declined to comment.
“It’s a lengthy pleading. … My office will be reviewing it in its entirety and will reply if ordered to by the court,” Getting said.
Two sheriff’s department detectives who interviewed Titus and others believed his alibi that he was hunting about 30 miles away at the time of the shootings. But the investigators were never called as defense witnesses at trial, the Innocence Clinic said.
“It would have been particularly compelling given the lack of physical evidence connecting Mr. Titus to the crime,” his lawyers said.
At trial in 2002, prosecutors acknowledged that Titus was hunting miles away near Battle Creek but said he drove home and killed Estes and Bennett.
The Innocence Clinic takes cases when it believes someone has been convicted based on false confessions, bad evidence, poor defense work or misconduct by prosecutors.
News source: http://www.freep.com/article/20140819/NEWS06/308190059/U-M-law-Michigan-hunters-deaths