Anthony Legion was 27 years old when he and Marvin Cotton were charged with the 2001 murder of Jamond McIntyre in Detroit. No witness saw who actually shot McIntyre, and none of the firearms recovered from the house was connected to his death. The prosecution’s main witness, Kenneth Lockhart, initially gave police changing accounts and did not implicate Legion until approximately three weeks after the shooting. Even then, Lockhart said he was only 90 percent certain Legion was one of the men he saw inside the house. Lockhart also claimed that he fired a gun inside the home after Cotton instructed Legion to kill him. However, investigators found no physical evidence that a weapon had been discharged inside, and a police evidence technician testified that the scene did not support that portion of Lockhart’s account. Another witness present during the gunfire could not identify any of the shooters. Shortly before trial, prosecutors disclosed that jailhouse informant Ellis Frazier claimed Cotton had discussed the crime while they were held in separate cells. Frazier initially said a man named Anthony facilitated the conversation, but later acknowledged that the man was actually another codefendant, Devonte Parks. Parks had passed a polygraph examination, had a confirmed alibi, and was later cleared. The defense was denied additional time to investigate Frazier’s account or use Parks effectively as a witness. Legion and Cotton were convicted of first-degree murder and a firearm offense in October 2001 and sentenced to life without parole. Frazier later recanted, stating that he had never spoken with Cotton and that a detective had prepared the account attributed to him. He also disclosed that authorities had promised favorable treatment, including early release and dismissal of a probation matter, despite his trial testimony that he had received nothing. A reinvestigation by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit uncovered extensive information withheld from both prosecutors and the defense. Records showed that police initially found no evidence connecting Legion or Cotton to the crime, that an undisclosed informant first supplied their names, and that Lockhart identified them only after detectives repeatedly consulted that informant. The suppressed records also confirmed that McIntyre was involved in a drug organization and that the house was being used for drug activity, directly contradicting the prosecution’s statements at trial. In October 2020, the court vacated Legion’s conviction and dismissed the charges after the Conviction Integrity Unit concluded that the withheld evidence and false presentation of the case had denied him a fair trial. Legion was released in December 2020 after completing a separate sentence for an unrelated conviction. (National Registry of Exonerations