(WXYZ) — A man convicted of double murder was released from prison after 15 years after the Wayne County prosecutor's Office said testimony in the case raises doubt.
Around 1 p.m., Kenneth Nixon expects to be a free man. He'll appear before a judge at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice to have his double-murder conviction dismissed as the prosecutor said he didn't receive a fair trial.
Nixon, 34, went to prison in 2005 for the murder of two children, getting a life sentence without parole.
A jury convicted him of firebombing a home on Charleston St., where a 10-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl died. The childrens' mother and other siblings made it out alive, among them, a 13-year-old boy.
But Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and the WCPO Conviction Integrity Unit are questioning the evidence.
They say the main issue is testimony surrounding who threw the Molotov cocktail. They say statements from the 13-year-old boy who identified Nixon was the suspect were inconsistent, and the only other person identifying Nixon was a jailhouse informant who was cut a deal.
“What is highly suspect here is the use of a jail informant by a homicide officer to gain a 'confession.' The informant testified that he had no knowledge of the case from watching TV to bolster his credibility. Years later he admitted that before Mr. Nixon," Nixon's attorney, David Williams, said.
Nixon's girlfriend, who also faced murder charges for being his driver that night, was acquitted at the time.
