Decades' old rape, murder convictions dismissed in Wayne County

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Wayne County Prosecutors righting some wrongs decades later. A judge dismissed two separate decades' old convictions Thursday morning.

The Conviction Integrity Unit of the prosecutor's office reviewed evidence in two cases and recommended that convictions be thrown out. 

The first case stems from back in 1993 when Kevin Lackey was convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl. He spent 25 years in prison.

"Everyone made judgments of me. I was scolded, constantly picked on. It made for a hard time for me in prison," Lackey said.

The victim, though, never identified him as the suspect who attacked her. Rather, it was a police dog that connected evidence at the scene to Lackey's house. Lackey was a friend of the family's who had been over at the house many times.

Prosecutors say that evidence is now profoundly invalid, and the judge ordered that Lackey be removed from the sex registry.

The second conviction that was dismissed was Michael Powels' murder conviction from 2007.

"The witnesses, and the people that had on the stand and everything, things were just not good," said his sister, Tarsheema Powels.

He was sentenced to 45-75 years in prison for shooting and killed a Detroit man. But it was later learned a witness gave false testimony, and some of that testimony helped result in Powels' conviction.

"I knew my son was innocent from the get go," his mother said.

Powels is to be released Thursday night.