Larry Smith v. Wayne County, Michigan, Robert J. Donaldson

Detroit, Michigan personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on civil rights violation theories.



After prosecutors agreed to have his murder conviction thrown

out, Larry Smith sued Wayne County and Robert Donaldson. Smith claims that his conviction

resulted from an elaborate scheme designed by police and prosecutors to elicit false testimony

from jailhouse informants to help secure criminal convictions. He alleges that Donaldson, one of

the prosecutors in his case, is liable because he actively participated in eliciting false testimony

from a key witness. And he maintains Wayne County is also on the hook because it had a policy

or custom of encouraging the nefarious activities.



1994, Kenneth Hayes was murdered in Wayne County, Michigan. Detectives in the

Detroit Police Department settled on Smith and his eventual codefendant, Jay Clay, as the

suspects. Smith went to trial, and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and a firearm

charge. The prosecution's case centered on the testimony of Edward Allen, a fellow county-jail

inmate. Allen testified against Smith and claimed that, while incarcerated together, Smith

confessed to the murder. Allen also provided key testimony linking Smith and Clay.

Smith was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and his

convictions were affirmed on direct appeal. Between 2003 and 2018, Smith filed multiple state

and federal habeas petitions. He repeatedly argued that he was actually innocent, and that

Allen's testimony was false. But his attempts at collateral relief were unsuccessful.

In time, Smith's case came to the attention of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Conviction

Integrity Unit. The Unit's investigation uncovered evidence that Allen may have been involved

in a broader scheme where Detroit Police Department detectives, in possible coordination with

County prosecutors, routinely elicited false testimony from jailhouse informants to be used in

criminal prosecutions.No. 24-1688 Smith v. Wayne County, Mich., et al. Page 3

may have been fabricated. Because Allen's testimony was central to the prosecution's case, the

Unit asked the state trial court to vacate Smith's convictions, which it did in 2021. The Unit also

concluded that "[d]ue to the passage of time,” it was "not possible for the case to be re-tried.”



Once released, Smith filed an action in the Michigan Court of Claims seeking

compensation under Michigan's Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA). That

statute permits certain "individual[s] convicted under the law of [Michigan] and subsequently

imprisoned in a state correctional facility for 1 or more crimes that he or she did not commit” to

bring an action for compensation against the State. Mich. Comp. Laws § 691.1753. Ultimately,

Smith reached a settlement agreement with the State. The State agreed to pay Smith $850,000 in

compensation. In return, Smith "release[d] the State of Michigan of all claims, actions, causes of

action, or demands which [Smith] now has or which may accrue that arise out of the

consequences resulting or to result from” his 1994 conviction. Release & Settlement Agreement,

R. 116–6, PageID 5058; see also id. ("[T]his is a release in full, and . . . Plaintiff will not be able

to otherwise recover damages or monies from the State of Michigan as a result of Plaintiff's

Wayne County convictions and sentences for first-degree murder and felony firearm in this

matter.”); id. at PageID 5059 ("It is further . . . agreed that [Smith] will not institute any

complaint, suit, action, or cause of action, in law or in equity, against the State . . . relating to the

investigation, arrest, prosecution, conviction, or imprisonment of Plaintiff.”). The agreement

contained a merger clause, in which the parties "agreed that there exists no promise, inducement,

or agreement outside of” the agreement's text, and that the agreement "contains the entire

agreement of the parties.” Id. at 5060.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Donaldson and Wayne County.



Affirmed