Mack Howell

Wrongfully convicted: August 29, 2016
Exonerated: March 20, 2023
Macomb County

Mack Howell was convicted of the armed robbery of a 7-11 store in Eastpointe in April 2014. A masked man came into the store, threatened the clerk, grabbed money from the cash register, and ran out of the store. The clerk described the robber as 6’0” tall.

Howell’s DNA was found on a crushed beer can in a nearby dumpster, which made him the police’s prime suspect. The clerk then claimed she could identify Howell as the perpetrator, even though the robber had been masked. Howell was convicted and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

The Innocence Clinic conducted a photogrammetric analysis, which showed that the robber in the store video was much taller than Howell, who is 5’6”. The Clinic also established that Howell, who used a cane at the time of the robbery, could not have run out of the store as the robber did. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit evaluated the case at the Clinic’s request and found new evidence of an alternate perpetrator. The Clinic and the CIU thus jointly moved for the release and exoneration of Howell, which happened on March 20, 2023.

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