WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – A report examining a wrongful conviction case in Wayne County was released on Monday, highlighting what led to the inaccurate conviction and offering recommendations to prevent it from happening again.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy held a press conference on Nov. 17 with the Wayne County Sentinel Event Review Team (WCSERT) to announce the findings of a review of a wrongful conviction case that happened in 2010.
Eric Anderson was convicted of an armed robbery in 2010 and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
According to the prosecutor’s office, his arrest and conviction were based solely on a single eyewitness account, without any physical evidence. There were also several system-related issues in the case that made the identification difficult, including masked suspects, poor lighting and the victim’s injury during the crime.
Anderson was identified and pointed at as a suspect based on a photograph taken around the time of the robbery, the collection of witness statements was delayed, and discrepancies existed among the victim and witnesses’ descriptions of the suspects’ physical characteristics.
“Mr. Anderson’s wrongful conviction resulted from systemic breakdowns despite the good-faith efforts of police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and jurors,” said Valerie Newman, Director of the WCPO’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU). “The review underscores that eyewitness misidentification remains one of the most powerful drivers of wrongful conviction. Strengthening procedures around identifications is essential to ensuring that the system protects the innocent and holds the guilty accountable.”
Anderson was in jail for about nine years before a sworn confession from one of the actual suspects, which led to a renewed investigation by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office CIU.
The CIU found that two other men committed the robberies, leading to Anderson’s release on April 30, 2019.
WCSERT released a sentinel event review on Monday, Nov. 17, regarding Anderson’s wrongful conviction, which is an investigative process that identifies and addresses underlying weaknesses in the system.
Overall, the report identified 40 contributing factors that led to Anderson’s wrongful conviction.
The team reached 25 recommendations designed to help reduce the likelihood of events happening like this in the future. Among the recommendations, WCSERT found strong support for the following:
- Enhancing the evaluation of eyewitness identifications
- Improving investigation management and documentation
- Corroborating identifications lacking indicators of reliability
- Exploring potential alibi evidence
- Strengthening community partnerships
- Ensuring adequate funding across the system
- Investing in training and oversight of counsel
- Leveraging pretrial procedures to ensure the availability of evidence and witnesses
“I think when mistakes are made it’s prudent to determine how and why they were made to ensure they are not made in the future,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. “I like that this review is done in a blame-free environment to get to the heart of the problem. I am hopeful that the adoption of these recommendations will help prevent future wrongful convictions and increase public confidence in the criminal justice system.”