News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena have been restored. Click here to learn more.

Man set free after wrongful imprisonment

Alex Williamson
/
Getty Images

A federal judge has vacated the conviction of a man who spent more than 20 years in prison for a double murder. Jeff Titus was convicted for the murders of two hunters near Kalamazoo.

David Moran is an attorney with the Michigan Innocence clinic.

Three years ago, he found a file on a different suspect -- a confessed serial killer named Thomas Dillon, who matched the description of someone spotted near the murder scene. That file had never been turned over to attorneys in the original trial.

Moran had this to say on the case, “Yeah when I read those -- saw those pages, I really believed that the case was going to be won. Unfortunately it took another three years, but at that point I really did believe that the case would be won."

Based on that evidence, a federal judge vacated the convictions against Titus, and ordered him released today

Dustin Dwyer reports enterprise and long-form stories from Michigan Public's West Michigan bureau.