Walter Forbes
Wrongfully Convicted: May 3, 1983
Exonerated: December 9, 2020
Jackson County
Walter Forbes was a young community college student when he was wrongfully charged with setting a fire in which one person died. At trial, a single witness implicated Forbes, and although her story had many flaws, a jury convicted Forbes of first-degree felony murder.
Sentenced to life without parole, Forbes would serve nearly 38 years in prison before finally being exonerated after the only witness against him recanted and new evidence emerged implicating a different suspect in the fire.
The Innocence Clinic filed a motion on behalf of Forbes and in 2020, after an evidentiary hearing held over Zoom, the judge found the new evidence compelling and agreed to throw out the conviction. The prosecution subsequently dismissed charges, and Forbes was fully exonerated in December 2020.
More details available at:
- The National Registry of Exonerations: Walter Forbes
- The Detroit Free Press: Michigan man jailed for nearly 4 decades exonerated after witness admits to lying
- CNN: Imprisoned nearly 40 years, a Michigan man is freed after a witness recanted her story
- The New York Times: Convicted Using False Testimony, Walter Forbes is Free After 38 Years
- NBC News: Michigan man released from prison after spending 38 years wrongly locked up on arson charge