Dawan Tyner

Wrongfully convicted: February 16, 2007
Successfully Concluded: September 22, 2015
Wayne County

Dawan Tyner was wrongfully convicted of firing shots at a car in a parking lot in Detroit, which resulted in the death of a woman in 2006. 

At an evidentiary hearing in 2012, the Innocence Clinic presented two new witnesses who were able to exculpate Dawan, while also naming the real shooter. The circuit court granted a new trial, but the prosecution appealed for many years. 

Finally, in 2015, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order upholding the decision to grant a new trial.

Dawan wished to return home to his family as soon as possible, and not take the risks involved in a new trial. Therefore, Dawan pled no contest to second-degree murder in exchange for a time-served sentence.

He was released from prison in September 2015.

More details available at:

• The Michigan Daily: “Students reopen Detroit case”
• Michigan Law School News: “Innocence Clinic earns wrongly convicted man a third new trial” 
• CBS 62 Detroit: “Law Students Get New Trial For Detroit Man Convicted Of Murder”