Richard Phillips 2

Wrongfully convicted: November 9, 1971
Exonerated: September 28, 2022
Oakland County

Richard Phillips, who was previously exonerated in 2018 through the Innocence Clinic’s efforts in a Wayne County murder case, was also exonerated in 2022 in a separate Oakland County armed robbery conviction. The Oakland County case stemmed from a September 6, 1971, robbery of a party store in Ferndale.

Phillips’s friend, Fred Mitchell, falsely implicated Phillips in the crime. In fact, Mitchell had committed the crime himself, but he implicated Phillips because the two men looked somewhat alike. Phillips was also framed by Mitchell in a separate Wayne County case. He was exonerated in the Wayne County case in 2018, and the Innocence Clinic subsequently worked to show that the evidence that showed Mitchell had lied in the Wayne County case also showed that he lied when he implicated Phillips in the Oakland County case. 

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit conducted an investigation of the case and in September 2022, the CIU and the Innocence Clinic filed a joint petition seeking to vacate Phillips’s Oakland County conviction. He was officially exonerated in this second case on September 28, 2022. 

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