A special team has issued its report on a wrongful conviction in Detroit, saying mistakes made early in the investigation led to the robbery conviction that unraveled years later. 

The matter involved Eric Anderson, who spent nine years in prison for an armed robbery that took place in 2010 in Detroit. That conviction was vacated in 2019. The judge’s sentence had called for 30 to 50 years in prison. 

The Wayne County Sentinel Event Review Team presented its findings Monday, upon a review requested by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. 

This review is the first of its kind in Michigan, authorities said. It identifies 40 “contributing factors that led to the inaccurate conviction,” and provides over two dozen recommendations to help boost the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system in Wayne County. While this idea had been in the works for years, Worthy said it took grant money and the careful selection of an appropriate investigation to use as the case study. She hopes to repeat the process with another case in the future.

“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,” Worthy said. “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.” 

The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School led the effort. Other agencies involved were Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Detroit Police Department, the Third Judicial Court of Michigan, the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office and the Cooley Innocence Project. 

The team concluded that errors happened at multiple steps during the robbery case, from eyewitness identification and investigation to trial and post-conviction. 

“The process is not about blame – it is about building a safer, more transparent, and more reliable justice system,” said John Hollway, Senior Advisor to the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at Penn Carey Law. 

For example, authorities said there was only one eyewitness account. The robbery victim had been injured. There was poor lighting in the area. The assailants were masked. An identification was made based on a photograph that was not taken around the time of the robbery. 

“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,” said Valerie Newman, Director of the WCPO’s Conviction Integrity Unit. 

A sworn confession from one of the actual perpetrators sent this case into further review, authorities said. The WCPO Conviction Integrity Unit determined that the other two men committed the robbery and asked that this conviction be vacated. 

The recommendations from this review focus on taking precautions early in an investigation, before errors can build up. This includes evaluation of eyewitness identifications, alibi questioning and case documentation. 

The report also noted that some technology that is commonly used today, including cell phone location tracking and license plate recognition cameras, was not available when the initial crime took place.