Innocent Black Man Released After Being Jailed For Almost 9 Years

An unknown hero paid for Davontae Sanford's massive court fees to fasten his release.

A young black teen, Davontae Sanford, who was 14-years-old at his arrest, was wrongfully jailed for the killings of four people in 2009. He was supposed to have served 37-90 years behind bars. Only a week later after murders were committed, the real gunman confessed to being the killer, but Sanford was still held in prison for nearly 9 years without any reason except being black.

When the news of his release got to his family, it was great long awaiting news but they could not celebrate as much as they would have. The bad news was they were to pay a total amount of $2500 as charges for his court fees and for a public defender. Don’t you find it kind of ridiculous that innocent man had to pay money for being released?

Where were they supposed to find this amount? This problem was going to delay his release after he has been acquitted of all charges by Wayne County Circuit Judge, Brian Sullivan. But when they least expected and were running up and down trying to gather some funds, a savior from nowhere paid the bills anonymously.

Davontae Sanford, the victim of injustice, walked free from an Ionia, Michigan prison on June 8. This was when the Judge had decided to vacate his conviction. He was to serve another two years for misdemeanor assault charges but paying the $2500 court fees had nullified that sentence.

“There was a very generous anonymous donor who knew about the case,” said Valerie Newman, an attorney who aided to get Sanford’s conviction rejected. “Whose response was, ‘I’m not going to let that happen. He’s not going to spend one more second locked up than he already has. I’m going to pay it.’ ”

“I want to try to put this behind me and move on with my life,”  Sanford said. “And move forward with my family, you know. Take one day at a time, one step at a time and just go from there.”

Family lawyer also gave remarks about how they are looking forward to file a civil lawsuit against the city of Detroit and Wayne County officials for this injustice. We hope the authorities will pay him for each and every year the had lost in jail.

Now Sanford is a free man because of this generous hero who didn’t fold his arms allow this injustice to pass him by. Come to think of it, how many innocent black people are sitting in jail for nothing?

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