Detroit murder conviction overturned 22 years later due to police misconduct

DETROIT – A man is out of prison after 22 years after Detroit-area prosecutors acknowledged his murder conviction was tainted by key testimony from a rogue police officer who turned out to be a bank robber in series

“It doesn’t really surprise me anymore, but it does,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. “I’ve never seen anything like this in all my decades of being a judge or a prosecutor.”

LaVone Hill was sentenced to life in prison after his 2002 conviction in the fatal shooting of two men.

Investigators had a signed statement from a man who said he witnessed the shooting. But at the trial, he recanted and said he had been coerced by the police.

The jury also heard from Detroit Police Sgt. Walter Bates, who denied coercing the witness. Apparently, the jury believed the officer and found Hill guilty.

But Worthy noted that jurors and Hill’s attorney did not know Bates was suspended at the time of his testimony. Bates was later convicted in federal court of organizing bank robberies.

“I can’t say whether or not (Hill) is guilty of this crime,” Worthy said. “This is what I can say definitively: Ex-Sgt. Bates’ testimony at Mr. Hill’s trial was a critical part of his case. No one during the trial, not the assistant district attorney, not the defense attorney or the judge, was informed of Bates’ ongoing and massive criminal behavior before, during and after the investigation and trial.”

Bates declined to comment when contacted by The Detroit News.

Hill, who has repeatedly maintained his innocence, was released from prison on Wednesday. He was represented by the Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, which discovered other problems with the case. The clinic said the victims were shot with a rifle, not a handgun, the jury was told.

“I wasn’t even there when this crime took place,” Hill told a judge. “I have been in prison for almost 23 years because of the misconduct of the Detroit Police Department.”