Ken Wyniemko is one of two former prisoners in Michigan released on DNA evidence with help from the Innocence Project.
A prison, also known as a correctional facility, jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, remand center, or internment facility, is a facility in which inmates are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state. Prisons are most commonly used within a criminal justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those pleading or being found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment. In simplest terms, a prison can also be described as a building in which people are legally held as a punishment for a crime they have committed.
Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, Michigan, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, and is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies.
The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States, between 2.3 and 5% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld.
Wyniemko was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual misconduct on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of a prisoner informant, Glen McCormick, who now admits he lied in order to avoid life in prison. DNA testing was not regularly performed at the time, but even the primitive blood tests of the time indicated that Wyniemko was not the perpetrator of the crime.
Sexual misconduct is an umbrella term for any misconduct of a sexual nature that is of lesser offense than felony sexual assault, particularly where the situation is normally non-sexual and therefore unusual for sexual behavior, or where there is some aspect of personal power or authority that makes sexual behavior inappropriate. A common theme, and the reason for the term misconduct, is that these violations occur during work or in a situation of a power imbalance. It is a legal concept to frame offenses which are non-criminal but nevertheless violating of another person's personal boundary in the area of sexuality and intimate personal relationships.
Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact—such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly—i.e., without need for any additional evidence or inference.
A blood test is a laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick. Multiple tests for specific blood components, such as a glucose test or a cholesterol test, are often grouped together into one test panel called a blood panel or blood work. Blood tests are often used in health care to determine physiological and biochemical states, such as disease, mineral content, pharmaceutical drug effectiveness, and organ function. Typical clinical blood panels include a basic metabolic panel or a complete blood count. Blood tests are also used in drug tests to detect drug abuse. In some of the United States, a blood test is required before marriage.
Unlike most convicts, Wyniemko held on to all the paperwork relating to his arrest and trial. He spent almost a decade in jail, until he contacted the Innocence Project at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Since being released, Wyniemko has spoken at various colleges, such as Wayne State University and the Michigan State University College of Law, about his experience as a wrongfully convicted man. He often wears black clothes and a gold crucifix. Wyniemko believes that at least 1 of 10 persons behind bars are innocent of the crimes of which they were convicted.
Wayne State University (WSU) is an American public research university located in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering nearly 350 programs to more than 27,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Wayne State University is Michigan's third-largest university.
The Michigan State University College of Law is a private law school located in East Lansing, Michigan and affiliated with Michigan State University. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the first law school in the Detroit, Michigan area and the second in the state of Michigan. The current dean of the school is Lawrence Ponoroff. In October 2018, the College of Law gained approval to become fully integrated into Michigan State University, which will convert the school from a private to a public law school and is expected to take a year and a half to finalize.
A civil suit, Wyniemko v. Clinton Township, was settled out of court for $3.7 million. Wyniemko now "plans to attend law school, doesn't count out a run for office someday." [1]
In August 2008, prosecutors announced that DNA evidence had tied another man, Craig Gonser, to the crime for which Wyniemko had been convicted, but that Gonser could not be tried because the statute of limitations had expired. [2]
Statutes of limitations are laws passed by legislative bodies in common law systems to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated.
