Today in Detroit, our client Gerry Thomas was exonerated after almost 30 years in prison for an assault and attempted murder he did not commit.
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John,
Today in Detroit, our client Gerry Thomas was exonerated after almost 30 years in prison for an assault and attempted murder he did not commit. Gerry would never have been arrested if law enforcement had fully investigated the crime, and would not have been convicted if the jury had been shown key evidence in the case.
** "I am thankful and so happy to finally be going home to my family."
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Gerry Thomas
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Gerry Thomas and his sisters Lois and Mary moments after his exoneration and release from 29 years in prison on January 13, 2020. Photo by Suzy Salamy/Innocence Project.
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In 1987 a woman was assaulted at knife-point in her car before escaping on foot. Weeks later, police came across the victim's stolen car and detained two men who said they'd gotten the car from the driver's brother. Police never investigated the brother, who was the reported source of the car, whose home contained the victim's car registration paperwork, and who matched the victim's description of her assailant.
Gerry was arrested two years later after being identified by the victim on the street, and was convicted despite an alibi for the time of the crime and distinct differences between his appearance and the description of the attacker. The jury never heard key evidence about the victim’s car registration being found at the home of someone else who met the physical description of the attacker.
Today's exoneration was the result of a reinvestigation by the Innocence Project and the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which agreed to vacate the conviction based on the failure of law enforcement to properly investigate the case and the lack of disclosure of evidence that substantially implicated someone else.
Throughout decades in prison, Gerry and his family never lost faith that this day would come. We are grateful for the prosecutor's office's commitment to justice, and for our community whose support makes days like today possible.
Thank you for being with us,
Meryl Schwartz
Interim Executive Director
Innocence Project
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Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
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