Mallorie Thomas seeks to get people out of prison who should not be there. She admits it’s a big goal, but it’s one she has pursued ever since her donor-funded fellowship at the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at Cincinnati Law.

To date, the OIP has helped free 33 wrongfully convicted Ohioans, who collectively served over 650 years behind bars.

“I’m not sure I would be where I am now but not for the OIP and my fellowship there,” Thomas says. “I learned tips and tricks that benefit me today—like getting public records from a police department.”

A life-changing education

Shortly after enrolling in Cincinnati Law, Thomas joined the OIP as a Rosenthal Student Fellow, named for the nonprofit’s most transformational donors, Richard and Lois Rosenthal. The Rosenthal’s have supported the OIP from its founding, enabling it to become one of the world’s most successful innocence organizations.

“A lot of people have been able to walk out of prison because of Dick Rosenthal,” Thomas says. “It’s truly amazing what the Rosenthal’s have accomplished. They identified a need, and stepped in and stepped up.”

Rosenthal Student Fellows receive a stipend to offset living expenses and gain hands-on experience working with inmates claiming wrongful convictions. Fellows investigate cases through record requests, witness interviews and document reviews. They also assist staff attorneys with drafting motions and briefs.

“When I first started working with the OIP, I was shocked by the injustices I saw,” Thomas says. “A fire ignited within me.”

Pursuing justice

One of her first cases as a fellow was that of Evin King, who was convicted in 1995 of murdering his girlfriend despite no direct eyewitness or forensic evidence of guilt. After 23 years of incarceration, the court finally agreed to a hearing on DNA evidence that ultimately pointed to another unidentified male. King was released two weeks shy of his 60th birthday.

When Thomas passed the bar in 2017, she joined the OIP as a Rosenthal Fellow, a two-year post-graduate fellowship, and quickly took on one of the most meaningful cases of her career.

Thomas and another OIP lawyer, Donald Caster, began representing Charles Jackson, who had gone to prison before Thomas was even born. In November 2018, after serving 27 years for crimes he didn't commit, Jackson walked free.

“To this day I feel a special connection with Charles,” Thomas says. “In fact, we spoke just the other day.”

Today, Thomas is a post-conviction litigator with Patituce & Associates, a Cleveland-based criminal defense firm and one of only a few firms in the state specializing in wrongful conviction cases.

“It’s where I’m meant to be,” Thomas says.

For the first time in more than 14 years, Michael Sutton is free and will be able to celebrate Mother's Day at home with his mother.

“This is the best Mother’s Day. I don’t want nothing but my son right there in my arms,” Roberta Sutton said.

For the first time in more than 14 years, Michael Sutton is free. 

On Monday, Michael Sutton and his friend Kenny Phillips walked out of prison to a crowd of family, friends, OIP exonerees and staff gathered to celebrate their new freedom. 

The two Cleveland men, who were just 18 years old when arrested, were freed after a hearing in front of Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell. Their convictions were overturned in March by Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals, which termed them “a travesty of justice.” Sutton is being represented by OIP in post-conviction proceedings, while Phillips is represented by the Wrongful Conviction Project of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.

In 2006, the pair was convicted by a jury on multiple charges, including the attempted murder of a police officer. A judge sentenced Phillips to 61 years in prison, and Sutton, who was the driver of the car, to more than 40 years in prison. Prosecutors had no physical evidence tying Phillips or Sutton to the crime. The entire case rested on the testimony of police officers Daniel Lentz and Michael Keane, who said they saw the drive-by shooter fire from a car that Phillips and Sutton were riding in.

"Michael and Kenny have been in prison for almost 15 years for something they didn't do," says Donald Caster, attorney for the Ohio Innocence Project and associate professor of criminal law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. "The court of appeals said their trial was a 'travesty of justice'. We are grateful that they are finally coming home."

You can learn more about this case in the following article: https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2021/05/ucs-ohio-innocence-projects-helps-earn-freedom-for-cleveland-man-after-more-than-14-years-in-prison.html?fbclid=IwAR3XuUOfqNel9LJ7Qq98uXytpJUznMADQosb3h49-ZtTP2kmYA9eoyqQ1-E.

House Bill 8 was passed unanimously in the Ohio House of Representatives, and is the fifth unanimous vote in favor of the bill.  The bill was formally introduced in the Senate on Tuesday, April 27 by Representatives Phil Plummer and Thomas West.   OIP is working with its partners to move the bill forward in the Ohio Senate and on to Governor DeWine’s desk for review and enactment into law. We’re hopeful that this bill will be passed in 2021.

House Bill 8 would amend sections 2152.75, 2901.10, and 2933.81 of the Revised Code to revise the law governing the electronic recording of custodial interrogations.  It would mandate, for the first time in Ohio’s history, that law enforcement agents record custodial interrogations of people charged with most major felonies.   The bill helps protect against false confession and other human factors that lead to wrongful conviction, protects law enforcement from false accusations of misconduct, and provides law enforcement management with another tool to ensure transparency and proper investigation of the most horrific crimes.  

OIP is grateful for the legislative leadership on this bill by House Majority Leader Bill Seitz (R-Hamilton County), House Minority Leader Amelia Strong Sykes (D-Summit County), Representative Phil Plummer (R-Montgomery County), and Representative Thomas West (D-Stark County).   OIP is also deeply thankful to Niki Clum of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, Gary Daniels of ACLU Ohio, Kevin Werner of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, and the team at Americans for Progress-Ohio, all of whom have worked hard to help move this important criminal justice reform measure forward in the General Assembly.  

The Eighth District Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of Kenny Phillips and Michael Sutton.  Kenny is represented by the Wrongful Conviction Project of the Office of the Ohio Public Defender and Michael is represented by the Ohio Innocence Project. 

In May 2006, Kenny and Michael were out with friends, celebrating their own birthdays and Michael’s acceptance to college. Michael, Kenny, and two friends were in Michael’s new car. As they were returning home, the occupants of a nearby car fired into another car, injuring its passengers. Two Cleveland police officers stopped and detained Michael, Kenny, and their two friends. All four were tried for attempted murder.  The testimony of those two officers was the principal evidence against the four young men. Michael and Kenny were convicted, while their friends were acquitted. For crimes they allegedly committed when they were teenagers, Kenny and Michael were sentenced to 65 and 41 years in prison, respectively.

In 2015, investigators with the Wrongful Conviction Project learned that two officers on the scene possessed information that directly contradicted the accounts of the two officers who detained Kenny and Michael, strongly pointed to Kenny and Michael’s innocence, and raised the specter of possible police perjury at the original trial. The two officers’ accounts of that night’s events, though, were never disclosed to any of the four defendants’ trial attorneys. On Kenny’s behalf, the Wrongful Conviction Project filed a motion for new trial; Michael contacted the Ohio Innocence Project, who joined in Kenny’s motion on Michael’s behalf.

The trial court denied the motion. But on March 18, the Eighth District ruled that the State of Ohio’s failure to disclose the exculpatory information violated Kenny’s and Michael’s right to a fair trial. In doing so, the court recognized the disproportionate rate at which African-Americans are wrongfully convicted and the possibility that undue weight had been given to the law enforcement testimony that led to the original convictions.

Attorneys at the Wrongful Conviction Project of the Ohio Public Defender and the Ohio Innocence Project are seeking their clients’ immediate release. As is always the case, the State of Ohio has the option of retrying Kenny and Michael, although no decision on that front has been announced.  Since the time of their arrest, Kenny and Michael have, as the Eighth District pointed out, “zealously, continuously, and unequivocally maintained their innocence.” They hope to return to their families and begin to rebuild their lives.

Those who worked on the case include Joanna Sanchez and Rachel Troutman from the Wrongful Conviction Project, and Donald Caster from the Ohio Innocence Project.  

OIP students who worked on the case over the past several years include Nikita Srivastava, Amona Al Refaei, Yessica Cardenas, Samantha Kovacevic, Jamal Baheth, Ambrosia McKenzie, Claire Gaglione and Rachel Keathley.

You can read more about the case in the following article:

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2021/03/men-imprisoned-since-2006-get-new-trial-after-cleveland-police-officers-contradict-fellow-officers-testimony.html