Wrongful convictions: just plain cruel!

Here’s the thing when it comes to writing about wrongful convictions. It’s a constant roller coaster ride! 

Tuesday was the perfect example. 

Early in the morning I celebrated (although she wasn’t aware of it!) with HFP board member Marla Mitchell-Cichon, former director of the Cooley Innocence Project at WMU. They were a major part of the news story you may have read, where two Michigan brothers were released from our prison system after serving 25 years for a crime they did not commit. 

Despite claims of alibis, George and Melvin DeJesus were convicted in 1997 of murder and felony firearm in the 1995 killing of Margaret Midkiff, who was found dead in her Pontiac home They were sentenced to life without parole. Finally, they're free! 

As many of you know, it was a wrongful conviction that sucked me into this prisoner advocacy business 20 years ago. It was sickening then, and it’s sickening now. Good-news stories, like the one above, place your roller coaster car at the apex. 

Then comes the plunge. 

Also Tuesday morning, I participated in a public hearing, conducted by the Michigan Parole Board, for a man who has been wrongly convicted. He has served 30 years for a crime he did not commit. Carlo Vartinelli was so convinced that he could get a fair trial that he turned down a plea deal that would have given him just a few years behind bars. But it didn’t work out that way. A jury found him guilty, and he got a life sentence. 

During those 30 years in prison, due to serious food allergies, he was nearly poisoned to death by careless prison food handlers, his wife died, and he suffered serious physical issues. One might think there would be at least some empathy and compassion. Yet, in that public hearing, his treatment wasn’t much better than that of the original trial. 

These hearings, now held virtually because of COVID, are fraught with technical issues. Add in the mix that one of the prisoner’s hearing aids was not working, and the native Mexican inmate can hardly speak English, and you found little dignity for this man who committed no crime, and who, if released, must be placed on the state sex offender registry. 

The Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan consistently did her best to trip up his testimony through his broken English responses, and relentlessly tried to persuade him to show remorse, even though he had done nothing wrong. 

Friend Marla keeps pushing for responsible legislation that will help reduce the number of wrongful convictions. “Michigan can do better,” she insists. 

Indeed.



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