Davontae Sanford

Wrongfully convicted: March 18, 2008
Exonerated: July 19, 2016
Wayne County

Davontae Sanford was charged and convicted of committing multiple murders in Detroit in 2007, when he was only 14 years old. He was exonerated after another man, a professional hit man, confessed credibly to the murders, and it became clear that there was no way that 14-year-old Davontae was involved in any way. The case received international attention due to Davontae’s young age at the time of his wrongful conviction, and to the potential misconduct that precipitated that conviction.

More details available at:

• The National Registry of Exonerations: Davontae Sanford
• The Detroit News: “Death of Innocence: Davontae Sanford’s twisted road to freedom” 
• The Atlantic: “How an innocence teenager confessed to murder” 
• New York Daily News: “Blind 14-year-old Detroit boy Davontae Sanford spends nine years in prison for four murders he didn’t commit” 
• The Guardian: “Detroit man who confessed to quadruple homicide at age 14 to be freed”