By Kennedi Combs / Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann, reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

For 14 years, Michael Sutton was imprisoned for crimes he claims he did not commit.

Before he was arrested for being involved in a shooting of two people and an attempted shooting of a police officer in 2006, the 18-year-old Sutton was about to graduate high school with a full ride to the University of Akron. He planned to study business administration and was excited for the next phase of his life.

"You just gotta say what it is. Four black kids at two in the morning on 55th in the middle of the projects," Sutton said. "You can say wrong place at the wrong time, but racial profiling plays a big part."

Now Sutton, a Cleveland native, and his co-defendant and childhood friend, Kenny Phillips, have been granted a new trial. The case was the first in which the Ohio Innocence Project and the Wrongful Conviction Project, two organizations committed to finding justice for wrongfully convicted individuals, worked together.

Cuyahoga County prosecutors in Michael O'Malley's office are standing by their decision to retry Phillips and Sutton.

"As expected, we are appealing this decision," Tyler Sinclair, public information officer, said in an email. "We owe nothing less to the victims of this crime. In the end, we must allow the entire legal process to run its course and we will be satisfied with whatever the outcome may be."

According to court documents, Cleveland Police officers John Lundy and Gregory Jones were patrolling the area near East 55th Street and Woodland Avenue in the early hours of May 29, 2006. Patrons were leaving area clubs at that time, and two other officers, Michael Keane and Daniel Lentz, were called in for backup due to the large crowd.

As Keane and Lentz approached the intersection of East 55th and Woodland, they testified they saw Sutton driving erratically. The officers followed his car as it turned right onto Woodland Ave. Lentz said he saw a passenger from Sutton's car fire a gun into a dark-colored Lincoln Mark VIII to its right. The officers testified that they then turned on their lights and sirens, and a gold car in front of Sutton's car was "out of there."

When Sutton's car turned right on Woodland Avenue, the four occupants, Sutton, Kenny Phillips, Deante Creel, and Akeem Tidmore escaped the vehicle. Lentz testified that, although it was dark, he observed two of the passengers carrying weapons. Lentz then testified he heard "several shots in his vicinity, saw the strobing of gun fire, and saw Creel throw a weapon." Within minutes of exiting the car, the four occupants were arrested.

Sutton's defense team, however, told a different story of what happened that night.

Phillips and his friends were celebrating his 18th birthday at Moda, a Cleveland nightclub. Around 2 a.m., Phillips, Sutton, Creel and Tidmore left the club and headed home in Sutton's cream-colored Chevy Caprice.

On the way, they stopped at a Marathon gas station at Kinsman Road and East 55th Street. When they left the gas station, they turned right onto Woodland Avenue and saw two cars in front of them: a small gold car and a dark-colored Lincoln Mark VIII. The defendants claimed the gold car pulled up parallel to the Lincoln, and an arm extended from the passenger window, shooting several shots into the left side of the Lincoln. The gold car then sped away.

Soon after the shots were fired, all four occupants of Sutton's car testified they heard police sirens. As they slowed to a stop to allow the police to pass them and pursue the gold car, they soon realized the police were instead stopping them. Sutton, who was driving, panicked, sped up, and turned right onto East 65th Street before he stopped, and all four passengers ran from the car. Within a few minutes, they were apprehended and arrested.

The victims in the Lincoln were Kenneth Tolbert, Kevin Tolbert, Christopher Lovelady, and Leonard Brown. Both Lovelady and Kenneth Tolbert experienced gunshot wounds to the head that resulted in permanent injuries.

While Creel and Tidmore were acquitted of all charges, Phillips and Sutton were convicted of multiple charges despite a lack of physical evidence. No guns, bullet casings or other evidence were found to link the two to the crimes. Phillips was convicted of four counts of attempted murder, among other charges, while Sutton was found complicit as the driver of the Caprice. Phillips was originally sentenced to 92 years and six months and Sutton to 46 years and six months.

Sutton's lawyer, Donald Caster, who is also a member of the Innocence Project, first joined the case in September 2017 after Sutton reached out to the Ohio Innocence Project for help. The Ohio Innocence Project worked on Sutton's case while the Wrongful Conviction Project worked with Phillips.

After 14 years in prison, Sutton and Phillips were released May 3, 2021, on $50,000 personal bonds after an Ohio appeals court granted them a new trial in March.

The ruling from the Eighth District Court of Appeals stated jurors never got to hear from Lundy and Jones, whose testimonies challenged those of Keane and Lentz. Because the state failed to provide this evidence, Sutton and Phillips were granted a new trial, according to the opinion written by presiding judge Anita Laster Mays, along with appellate judges Larry A. Jones, Sr. and Michelle J. Sheehan.

"To deny appellants' right to have all material evidence considered by the jury is a travesty of justice, particularly where there is minimal, questionable, physical evidence," they wrote.

Caster, Sutton's lawyer, said that evidence was extremely important.

"The two officers, Lundy and Jones, who have already given sworn testimonies [in 2015] that the other two officers, Keane and Lentz, first of all weren't where they said they were at the time of the shooting,so they couldn't have seen what they said they saw," Caster said. "They are also pretty firm that there was no shooting at the police during the foot pursuit."

Patrons in the Moda nightclub will be key witnesses in the new trial, yet to be scheduled.

"I think the other evidence is the witnesses who were in the club and who saw the alternate suspect [in the gold car] in an altercation with the victims at the club," Caster said. "Their affidavits were submitted to the court but never really ruled on. I think that will be an important trial testimony if the case is retried."

Sutton said his time in prison was rough, but his family and the personal knowledge of his innocence pushed him through his day-to-day life locked up.

"I can't even tell you how I did it, to tell you the truth. Family. When people don't give up on you on the streets, that plays a huge part."

After his conviction, the Sutton family plastered Facebook and Instagram with pictures of Sutton and the caption #FreeMike, relaying his story of innocence to anyone who would listen.

Derrick Walters, Sutton's uncle, also believed in his innocence from the beginning.

"As soon as I first heard that he was arrested, I knew something was off," Walters said. "He's not capable of something like that. He wasn't raised like that. However, everything that's done in the dark will come to the light eventually."

Despite the uncertainty of his future, Sutton is looking at the positive side of his situation.

"I just appreciate the free air," he said. "You get everything snatched away from you as a kid. So to come home now, I don't want to feel bitter about nothing, because this humbled me."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

Mississippi prisons often lack resources to treat people who are incarcerated with substance-use disorders adequately but a nonprofit organization is offering alternative programs focused on treatment instead of incarceration.

The Magnolia State has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation, with more than 1,000 people per 100,000 residents behind bars.

Christina Dent, founder and president of End It For Good, said they invite people to support approaches to drugs prioritizing life, preserving families and promoting public safety.

"We do education out in the community - with citizens, with advocates, with policymakers - to help them understand why a punitive criminal justice approach to drugs and addiction has not produced good results and why a health-centered approach would produce much better results," Dent explained.

It is estimated more than 578,000 people in state and federal prisons in 2022 had a substance-use disorder in the year prior to their admission, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Dent emphasized they recommend lawmakers look at other alternatives to stop reactionary approaches resulting in Mississippians paying harsher penalties for crimes such as drug possession.

"Shift away from increasing penalties," Dent urged. "Another thing that we could do would be to reduce penalties or recategorize penalties for something like drug possession. We would love to see a shift from treating drug possession as potentially a felony to drug possession being a misdemeanor. "

Dent noted such an alternative approach would allow individuals impacted to more easily regain employment, support their families and reintegrate into society. She added felony convictions create lifelong barriers to employment and self-sufficiency.


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April is Second Chance Month and many Nebraskans are celebrating passage of a bipartisan voting rights restoration bill and its focus on second chances.

Legislative Bill 20 restores voting rights to those convicted of a felony upon completion of their sentence, eliminating the two-year waiting period.

Jason Witmer, policy fellow at the ACLU of Nebraska, said the change will promote success for formerly incarcerated Nebraskans. He pointed out it also will increase the likelihood of the state meeting the objectives Gov. Jim Pillen and the Department of Corrections have committed to.

Nebraska became the fourth state to join "Reentry 2030," a national initiative of the Council of State Governments focused on strengthening programs and removing obstacles for those reentering society after incarceration.

"The more somebody can have their rights in place for them, the more invested they are in the society," Witmer contended. "The more invested you are in your community and your society, the more likely you are to succeed. And the right to vote is fundamentally part of reintegrating into society. It's your civil voice."

Reentry 2030 aims to have all 50 states commit to improving outcomes for formerly incarcerated people. Nebraska's goals include increasing GED completion and college coursework by those in Nebraska prisons, and reducing recidivism 50% by 2030.

Pillen allowed the measure to become law but stated it contains "potential constitutional issues" which could lead to a legal challenge.

Nebraska's recidivism rate for those who left prison between 2019 and 2022 was nearly 30%.

Witmer noted it is at least partly attributable to the challenges people face upon leaving incarceration.

"You did the time, and then you come out and find out, 'Oh, I can't vote. Oh, housing is almost impossible to get. Oh, I can't work here,'" Witmer outlined. "Suddenly you don't feel like you're a part of any of this."

Across the country, 37 other states restore voting rights to those charged with a felony either immediately after incarceration or after completing parole or probation. Two states and the District of Columbia allow people to vote while incarcerated.

A new website aims to help Kentuckians just out of prison re-enter their communities and find job training, employment and recovery services.

April is Second Chance Month - and according to the Prison Policy Initiative, about 60% of formerly incarcerated individuals are jobless.

Gov. Andy Beshear said the website - secondchance.ky.gov - is meant to cut bureaucracy around job searching, and tie resources together in one spot to make it easier for people to get back on their feet.

"We are not our worst day," said Beshear. "When we look at how many people have a criminal record in Kentucky, this is the right thing to do. But it's also necessary from a workforce standpoint."

In 2021, lawmakers passed legislation that tasked the Kentucky Department of Corrections with issuing certificates of employability to people who successfully complete programs while incarcerated.

It also helps increase access to state-issued IDs for those leaving prison.

The website includes information on resume help, job searches and local reentry services.

Beshear said eventually, the site will contain a comprehensive list of employers - such as Kentucky State Parks, which is a participant in second chance employment.

"If they need to find resources on how to get that next level of education or workforce training," said Beshear, "and then ultimately be able to see a list of employers that are willing to look at them for second chance employment."

Businesses in the Commonwealth can also find information about programs that can aid in hiring and retaining more second-chance employees - including the Fair Chance Academy, Kentucky Transformational Employment program, Prison-to-Work Pipeline, and Jobs on Day One programs.