A man incarcerated for over 25 years was released on Tuesday after prosecutors conceded that his 1999 confession to a Detroit murder was extracted under duress by a corrupt police officer.
George Calicut Jr., 56, emerged from a Coldwater, Michigan, prison, where he had been serving a life sentence, sporting a wide smile and a Detroit Lions hoodie as he embraced his legal team.
Calicut consistently maintained his innocence in the killing of Virgie Perkins, asserting there was no physical evidence or witnesses against him, and that he never saw the alleged confession until his trial.
Furthermore, recent DNA analysis “further supports the lack of any evidence” linking him to the crime at Perkins’ residence, according to statements from the Wayne County prosecutor’s office and his attorneys.
Clearing Calicut “reflects this office’s unwavering commitment to the integrity of convictions and the credibility of the system,” said Valerie Newman, head of the conviction integrity unit.
Calicut was released from prison soon after a judge dismissed the case at the request of lawyers on both sides.
He was represented by the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan Law School. Cooley Innocence Project at Cooley Law School also had a role.
Calicut was accused of choking Perkins and cutting her neck while stealing money and a phone from her home in 1999. He admitted that he took a phone the next day from Perkins’ son, but said he grabbed it from a vehicle.
At trial, a Detroit homicide investigator, Barbara Simon, acknowledged that she wrote Calicut’s alleged confession before he signed it. Calicut testified in his own defense and denied the statements but was nonetheless convicted of murder and automatically given a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Simon told Mr. Calicut, who had no prior interactions with police, that she could help him by creating a statement that would reduce the charge to manslaughter, which would allow him to get a bond and go home,” prosecutors and Calicut’s attorneys said in a four-page agreement to have the conviction dismissed.
Simon, who’s retired from Detroit police, could not be immediately reached for comment. A phone number was unanswered.
Detroit has spent millions of dollars settling lawsuits related to Simon’s work as a homicide investigator.
Records show Calicut’s trial prosecutor was Mike Cox, who later served as Michigan attorney general and is now a Republican candidate for governor. An email seeking comment about the exoneration was not immediately answered.
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