State of Michigan v. Quentin Carter

In September 1991, 16-year-old Quentin Carter was charged with raping a 10-year-old girl.



The girl's mother waited 10 days to take her to the police after the girl said three males, including Carter, dragged her from her porch and raped her. By that time, there was no biological evidence to collect, but injuries from a severe beating were still quite visible. During questioning, Aurelias Marshall, the boyfriend of the girl's mother, admitted that he had beaten the girl with an extension cord to get her to identify her attackers.



The victim claimed that Cater held her down while others assaulted her and then he raped her.



There was no physical evidence that the child was raped.



Even though the victim says she tried to convince prosecutors that she lied while testifying, she was not believed until Grand Rapids Police investigators solved the 1990 murder of Joel Battaglia. The victim and her mother told authorities that it was Marshall who raped the girl and terrorized them into lying to police and the courts.



In June 215, 56-year-old Marshall was charged with the murder of Battaglia.

Carter was convicted in February 1992, and he was sentenced six to 20 years in prison.



In 1990, the victim, then age 30, told investigators that it was Marshall and not Carter who had raped her and Marshall had beat her until she agreed to accuse Carter of the crime.



"The perjured testimony presented as a result of the actions of Aurelias Marshall created an irregularity so offensive to the maintenance of a sound judicial process that the Feb. 26, 1992, conviction of first-degree criminal sexual conduct cannot be allowed to stand," Kent County Circuit Court George Buth.



Carter's conviction was vacated on June 25, 2015 and the case was dismissed.



In 2017, he was awarded $817,351 in state compensation.



Carter served 17 years for a crime he did not commit.