Anthony Kyles was 27 years old when he was accused of deliberately setting a 1995 house fire in Pontiac that killed Robert Perry and three of his young children. A surviving resident told investigators that the family had been using an electric space heater with an improperly repaired cord and that the fire appeared to begin near the heater. Nevertheless, the lead investigator concluded that gasoline had been poured across the porch, even though laboratory testing found no trace of an accelerant. The prosecution’s key witness, Keith Hollimon, claimed that he saw Kyles ignite a Molotov cocktail and throw it onto the porch. Hollimon was facing a possible life sentence as a habitual offender in an unrelated case but received only one year in jail. Jurors were told that he received no benefit for his testimony. Kyles was convicted in 1997 of four counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. Years later, Hollimon recanted and said investigators had supplied him with information about the fire, promised help with his criminal case, and discussed reward money. None of those inducements had been disclosed to Kyles’s defense. Independent fire specialists also reexamined the space heater and the original investigation. They concluded that the fire was accidental, most likely caused by the heater’s faulty wiring, and that the original arson determination lacked a scientific foundation. The Michigan Innocence Clinic and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit jointly sought to overturn Kyles’s convictions based on the recanted testimony and the new fire-science findings. His convictions were vacated in October 2022, and the case was dismissed later that month. Kyles was released after spending 24 years, 11 months, and 26 days wrongfully incarcerated. (National Registry of Exonerations)