This is the second installment in “Exploring Integrity: Reviewing Wrongful Conviction Remedies,” a series examining the impact of conviction integrity units on the American judicial system’s rate of wrongful conviction. Presented by the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, the investigation is supported by Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He went to prison an innocent man.
Kenneth Nixon wasn’t the first to join the fraternity of America’s wrongfully convicted, but today he and the Organization of Exonerees are working to slow the growth of their membership.
“Honestly, just being real, prison made me who I am,” says Nixon, president and co-founder. “They turned me into this. I read. I studied. I watched. I began to understand how things worked.
“Prison was college for me. It was conditioning for me. I was already of the mindset, ‘How do I help other people?’ It just took on a mind of its own, once I got into it.”
Advocacy on behalf of others bound for trial or already behind bars, due to misidentification, faulty investigations or other factors, is part of the Michigan-based Organization of Exonerees’ focus. Additional work is geared toward aiding men and women, post-exoneration, as the Organization stressed at its third annual “International Wrongful Conviction Day Gala” on Oct. 27 in Detroit. Drawing about 200 guests to the Huntington Tower, including judges, attorneys, advocates and other supporters, the event demonstrated success and determination by victims of the criminal justice system, who’ve become survivors and organizers.
While Oct. 2 is recognized as “International Wrongful Conviction Day,” the Organization of Exonerees promotes awareness the entire month, Nixon says.
“Our goal is to advocate for legislative reform, but mainly it’s to help recruit resources for re-entry, and removing barriers,” he adds.
Formed as a nonprofit in 2022, the organization’s initiatives include a program that lets Michigan exonerees attend Wayne State University, tuition-free. Nixon became the first to enroll, studying political science with the ultimate goal of completing law school. He credits Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Valerie Newman, director of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit, for supporting the effort. Newman attended the Oct. 27 gala.
Nixon also says Worthy and Newman helped him regain freedom after the night in 2005 when a Molotov cocktail thrown at a window sparked a fire, killing two children. False statements and a feud with another man, about the mother of Nixon’s child, linked Nixon, then 19, to the crime. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Following an investigation of his case by Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School Innocence Project, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit launched a review, ultimately recommending that Nixon’s sentence be vacated in 2021.
“Yes, I, 100 percent, think the conviction integrity units are extremely helpful,” Nixon says. “They shortcut the process a lot.”
“The downside,” he says, “is that there are cases that can be extremely difficult to navigate when everything in you is telling you this person is innocent; we just don’t have the evidence to prove it.”
“We’re literally asking the people who sent us to prison to correct their own errors,” adds Nixon. “But there are people doing positive work, who are doing the best they can.”
Not bound by legal statutes or courtroom guidelines, the Organization of Exonerees channels its energies into activism, both on front lines and behind the scenes, such as the “Walking Free Fund.” The $1,000 stipend is provided to exonerees, upon discharge from prison.
“You’re not actually free until you can make your own choices,” says Nixon. “You’re at the mercy of your family and what they can provide you. I can only wear the clothes that somebody else bought me. For us, putting that cash in people’s hands is a first step to restoring their dignity.”
Organization of Exonerees member Eric Anderson told guests at the Detroit gala, “Advocacy is what keeps us going. Advocacy is what lets us withstand the trauma that has been put upon us.”
Like Nixon, Anderson was exonerated by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit; his 2019 release from prison after nine years followed a wrongful armed-robbery conviction. The University of Michigan Innocence Clinic represented Anderson in court.
“Traveling the country, we understand that wrongful conviction is not a Detroit problem,” Anderson said at the gala. “It’s not a Michigan problem.”
He recalled how, not long after the Organization formed, Anderson and fellow exonerees journeyed all the way to New York, navigating city traffic and unfamiliar subway routes, to support Andre Brown in court — only to learn that the proceeding was adjourned. Brown had been a college student when he was arrested and tried for shooting two men on a Bronx street in 1999. Wrongfully convicted due to what a judge deemed ineffective assistance of counsel, Brown told the gala’s audience how the Organization of Exonerees rallied for him after he faced the possibility of returning to prison, due to a legal technicality.
“It’s only when we all unite together that change happens,” Brown said.
Organization member Eron Shellman attended the gala in the same spirit of unity.
“It’s not about my struggles,” says Shellman. “I just want to support the Organization in the way it supported me.”
Shellman’s case was reviewed, but not accepted by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit. His book detailing his 32 years wrongfully incarcerated after his best friend’s murder is scheduled for publication in 2026.
With just 50 members who support events and activities at various levels of involvement, Nixon says the Organization of Exonerees seeks year-round support and assistance beyond “International Wrongful Conviction Day.” He urges anyone interested to visit the website organizationofexonerees.com to learn how to get involved.
During its short existence, the Organization has aided about three-dozen people who’ve come home, but Nixon says the numbers of those still wrongfully locked up is disturbing.“Some of these cases keep people up at night. They keep us up at night,” he says. “It’s a torment.”
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