The U-M Innocence Clinic

continued

On a Sunday afternoon in March 2000, Shannon Gholston was shot while driving down a street in Ecorse. At the hospital, he named Deshawn and Marvin Reed as his drive-by assailants.

Attorneys for the Reeds, who are nephew and uncle, produced six witnesses to back up their alibis. Two others testified they saw a man step out of an alley and fire the shots that left Gholston paralyzed. One of them identified the shooter as Tyrone Allen.

The prosecution’s only evidence was Gholston’s statement. But that was enough for the judge hearing the case, who convicted both the Reeds.

In October 2000, Tyrone Allen was killed during a carjacking. Police found a .38 on his body. The judge refused a motion to delay sentencing for a week until ballistics tests could be completed. He sentenced Marvin to twelve to thirty years and Deshawn to seventeen-and-a-half to thirty.