'Grateful' man's murder conviction vacated after 27 years

DETROIT (FOX 2) - An innocent man’s murder conviction has been vacated after spending 27 years in jail for a murder he did not commit.

The backstory:

A Wayne County judge dismissed the case against 56-year-old George Calicut Jr. who was wrongfully convicted back in 1999.

Virg Perkins was murdered in her home in Detroit. Calicut was sentenced to life in prison.

Investigators now believe that the officer who interviewed him caused a false confession.

"The system is the system," he said. "I think people fail people. We put people in positions and trust them that they would do the right thing and the position that we bestow upon them. Anytime you have flawed people doing flawed work, then this is what happens."

FOX 2: "It’s amazing. I would be a lot more bitter. You seem to have a great attitude. You’re out and (it's a) miracle."

"I am grateful. I am extremely grateful to everybody that worked on this case to make what happened, happen," he said. "You know I’m out here now. It’s not what it once was when I left. But I’m happy to be experiencing it right now and so you know, once they open the doors and let you out of prison you kind of drop a lot of the baggage that you’ve been carrying for a long time."

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office says that had the jury known the information about the officer’s pattern of courage confessions, Calicut would’ve never have been convicted.