LANSING (WKZO-AM) — Sometimes the courts get it wrong. Just this week the Governor signed legislation that would compensate wrongly convicted inmates. The Michigan Innocence Project says that Jeff Titus of Kalamazoo County is one of those inmates.
Titus is serving life for the shooting deaths of Doug Estes and Jim Bennett who were shot and killed as they were deer hunting in the Fulton State Game area in 1990.
The Innocence Project was contacted about the case by the two detectives who originally investigated the case and confirmed that Titus was 30-miles away from the shootings when they occurred. The University based legal operation has appealed on Titus’s behalf for a new trial.
He was convicted 14-years later following a cold-case investigation, and a flawed defense, according to former detectives Royce Ballett and Bruce Wieresma.
They tell WOOD-TV 8 that they were never contacted to testify, which baffles them. The Court of Appeals heard arguments for a new trial this week and a decision is pending.
Titus remains in state prison, and the detectives say a killer has gotten away with 2 murders.
