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Federal judge denies Kwame Kilpatrick motion to vacate sentence

Posted at 2:38 PM, Mar 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-19 14:38:56-04

(WXYZ) — A federal judge has denied a motion from former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to vacate his 28-year prison sentence.

Judge Nancy Edmunds, who sentenced Kilpatrick back in 2013, said that he couldn't show actual innocence.

"As this court has previously discussed at length, the evidence at trial weighed heavily in support of the verdicts of guilt against Defendant," Edmunds wrote in her order.

Kilpatrick, 48, and his lawyers said that the prison sentence should have been vacated for several reasons, including the fact that he believes his defense attorney had a conflict of interest and that the jury received incorrect instructions.

He has also submitted appeals to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied his appeal, and the Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal in 2016.