Murder Charges Against Man Who Spent 15 Years in Prison Dismissed
Murder charges were dismissed Thursday against a man who spent 15 years in prison for the fire-related deaths of five children in suburban Detroit.
Juwan Deering will not face a second trial, Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
A judge granted her request to close the case against him a week after Deering’s convictions were thrown out.
Deering walked into court shackled at the waist but walked out as a free man with no restraints.
“It’s been a hard uphill battle,” Deering said moments later.
McDonald, who was elected in 2020, took a fresh look at Deering’s case at the request of the University of Michigan law school’s Innocence Clinic.
Favorable evidence was not shared with his defense lawyer, and jurors at the 2006 trial did not know that jail informants were given significant benefits for their testimony against Deering, McDonald said.
Deering has insisted he was innocent of a fire that killed children at a home in Royal Oak Township in 2000.
No one could identify him as being at the property.
Authorities at the time said the fire was revenge for unpaid drug debts.
In court, the prosecutor said a dozen law enforcement professionals last week unanimously determined there is insufficient evidence to tie Deering to the fire.
The investigation between 2000 and 2006 was “totally compromised by misconduct,” McDonald said.
Law students earlier had been trying to get a new trial for Deering, arguing that the fire analysis was based on “junk science.”
Those requests were unsuccessful in Michigan’s appellate courts.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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