March 20, 2011 - 4:35pm
Prosecutors drop charges in University Innocence Clinic case
BY JILLIAN BERMAN
This is a developing story, continue checking michigandaily.com for updates.
Officials from the University Law School's Innocence Clinic announced in a press release this afternoon that the Wayne County Prosecutor's office dropped murder charges against Dwayne Provience citing lack of evidence.
Provience was convicted of murdering Detroit resident Rene Hunter in 2001 and was freed from jail last November, after Innocence Clinic officials argued there was a lack of evidence in his case. The prosecution called for a retrial in the case earlier this year after a key witness recanted his testimony. But today's announcement means Provience will not have to face a retrial.
Law School Prof. David Moran, the co-director of the Innocence Clinic, said in the release that Innocence Clinic officials have amassed a large amount of evidence in the more than year they have been working on the case to indicate Provience's innocence.
"We hope that, having found that overwhelming evidence of who the real killers are, the prosecution will consider bringing to justice the killer who is still out there walking the streets," he said in the release.
In the release, Provience thanked the Innocence Clinic for the work they've done on the case.
"If it wasn't for the Michigan Innocence Clinic — students doing the legwork to find information, I'd still be in prison today," Provience said in the release. "They started with one lead, and they took it from there, just kept finding more and more details."
The Innocence Clinic was founded in the Winter of 2009 and today's announcement marks the clinic's third "major exoneration" since its founding, according to the release.
