Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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Michael Darnell Porter

 

Charge:

"Sexual Assault, Kidnapping and Rape"

Sentence:

Life Imprisonment without possibility of parole

Years Imprisoned:

15

Year Crime:

1987

Year Convicted:

1988

Year Cleared:

2002

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Florida

County or Region of Crime:

Pasco

City of Crime:

Holiday

Result:

Judicially Exonerated Released

Summary of Case:

"Michael Darnell Porter was wrongly convicted in 1988 of burglary, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated battery, and sexual battery of a woman in her Holiday, Florida motel room on the evening of June 26, 1987. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, so the jury relied on the victim's identification of Porter for his conviction. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2002 the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Porter's petition for habeas corpus and set aside his conviction after concluding the prosecution had violated his due process rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), by failing to disclose to him, for use at trial, two favorable police reports, both of which were material to his defense. (See, Porter v. Moore, No. 01-12311, 31 Fed.Appx. 940 (11th Cir. Feb. 4, 2002) (unpublished)). Later in 2002, this time equipped with the previously undisclosed police reports, Michael Porter was retried and acquitted of all charges. He was released after 15 years in custody. In 2004 Porter filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that named as defendants Bob White, the Pasco County Sheriff, and James Gary Fairbanks, the Pasco County investigator who he alleged withheld the undisclosed police reports. The U.S. District Court judge granted White and Fairbanks motion for summary judgment. On April 12, 2007 the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judge's ruling. The appeals court ruled that Porter didn't demonstrate that White and Fairbanks actions that resulted in suppression of the police reports was the result of anything more than a "negligent or omission," and there was no evidence of "ill-will or motive.""

Conviction Caused By:

Victim's erroneous identification of Michael D. Porter as her assailant. Prosecutor misconduct of the prosecutors failing to disclose two favorable police reports.

Innocence Proved By:

Convictions overturned in 2001 by the Florida Court of Appeals based on two exculpatory reports concealed from Porter's trial lawyers by the prosecution. Michael D. Porter was acquitted of all charges after his retrial in 2002.

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

26

Age When Released:

41

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Porter v White, 483 F.3d 1294 (11th Cir., 04-12-2007)"

Information Location 1:

"http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1500465971778491716&q=483+F.3d+1294&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48"

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

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