A Flint, Michigan man is released from prison early after perjured testimony is uncovered.
Bobby Jamar Younger, 37, was recently released from the Muskegon Correctional Facility in northern Michigan after being convicted of assault with the intent to murder during a shooting back in September 2004. Younger had also been convicted on armed robbery and weapons charges. He was let go after perjured testimony from a gang member during his trial was discovered. As a result, he was sentenced to a much longer term than he actually served.
Younger, originally from Flint, had been convicted of shooting gang member Garner Wood along with another individual in Mt. Morris Township. He was ultimately sentenced to 32-50 years in prison for his crimes. He appealed the verdict and during a second trial, his attorney David L. Moffitt said the witnesses against him were rival gang members, which would likely taint their testimony and the jury should have been made aware of this. Moffitt said he informed the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office of the evidence he found evidence that one of those witnesses provided false information on the stand.
“In fact, during the trial they denied any fact that there was a rival gang, they denied they were members, and it was kept from the jury that one of those three witnesses had already been involved in two homicides,” Moffitt said. “The jury had a completely false picture regarding Mr. Younger, and they ended up convicting him.”
Genesee Circuit Judge Richard B. Yuille in May resentenced Younger to nearly twelve years of time served on the assault with intent to murder charges and scheduled him to be released.
“I give credit to the Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office because when we did bring it to their attention (in January) they did the right thing,” said Moffitt said. “They took ownership of this flawed trial and they agreed that Mr. Younger should be released immediately.”
“We made a determination that we indeed agreed that there was perjured testimony used in the trial that assisted in convicting Mr. Younger and we agreed that we thought the appropriate response was to have Mr. Younger re-sentenced to time served,” prosecutor David Leyton said, adding, “In this particular case there were three witnesses, as I recall, who we later learned were members of the Pierson Hood gang. Mr. Younger, we later learned, may have been a member of the Merrill Hood gang and it is suggested…Garner Wood and Monte Leeper and one other person testified that, no, they weren’t in the gang and, no, they didn’t have a beef with Mr. Younger, and later on we find out that’s not true… When the trial was going on of Mr. Younger, we did not know that. My prosecutor did not know that. Some years later we find out while we’re involved in the Pierson Hood gang investigation…She, at that time, doesn’t then remember all those years before that was the testimony at Mr. Younger’s trial. Nor could anybody expect her to because she probably had ten, fifteen, maybe twenty trials in between so nobody could remember the specific testimony going back then.”
Younger has always maintained his innocence. “The system, it’s just crazy,” he said. “You’ve got to really look into this and look into people’s cases before you just actually get to convicting people because you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right person.” He added, “I just want to start over and get my life back on track.”
Sources:
Perjured testimony leads to early release for Flint man
Perjured testimony leads to early prison release for alleged Flint gang member
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