When Mark Craighead and Lamarr Monson were released from prison and exonerated for murders they didn’t commit in Detroit, they pledged to help others who have been wrongfully convicted.
Now the pair, united by a common cause, are raising money for a nonprofit they recently created – Freedom Ain’t Free – to connect innocent people behind bars with attorneys, paralegals, private investigators, firearm experts, and other legal resources.
For now, the attorneys and others are working pro-bono while Craighead and Monson begin raising funds.
“Nobody in the justice system is going to help these guys out,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “If we weren’t doing this, these guys would have no way to get out. These guys have no resources, and many of their families have no money.”
Craighead and Monson both falsely confessed to separate murders after being subjected to aggressive interrogations by now-retired Detroit Detective Barbara Simon, whose coercive tactics were examined in a Metro Times series that launched in August.
They spent a combined 27 years in prison before they were released and eventually exonerated.
Both filed a lawsuit against Simon and the city. Monson reached an $8.5 million settlement with the city earlier this month, and Craighead’s case is still wending its way through court.
Simon’s actions have cost the city about $25 million in lawsuit settlements so far.
Two of their first clients, Terrill Johnson and Deonte Howard, also say they were victimized by Simon. Johnson was 17 years old when he said Simon detained him and his family without a warrant in 2002. He claims Simon coerced him to falsely confess by making false promises.
Howard was convicted of a 2010 murder after he said witnesses were intimidated and threatened to testify against him at his trial.
Monson says the plan is to expand the nonprofit’s resources as donations increase.
“We’re going to grow organically,” Monson says. “We have a vision to be effective and get guys out and restore their families and be a beacon of light.”
As the nonprofit grows, the pair is going to feature different prisoners on their website and show how much is needed to help each person.
“We are totally transparent about everything,” Craighead says. “People can see where their money is going.”
Eventually they plan to produce podcasts featuring individual prisoners, their stories, and their family members.
Once prisoners are free, the nonprofit plans to help find them housing, work, and even therapy.
On the nonprofit’s advisory board is David Moran, co-founder of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which helped free Craighead, Monson, and dozens of other wrongfully convicted prisoners.
Craighead and Monson say too many innocent people are behind bars because of the chronic mistreatment of suspects for decades in Detroit. In the 1980s and 1990s, the misconduct among police, especially homicide detectives, was so pervasive and egregious that the U.S. Department of Justice demanded reforms to avoid a costly lawsuit while Duggan was the county prosecutor.
Then in the early 2000s, all of the Wayne County prosecutor’s records were illegally destroyed, making it difficult for inmates to prove their innocence.
“That is hurting so many people that it’s ridiculous,” Craighead says of the destroyed records.
Detroit police also hid exculpatory evidence from prosecutors and defendants. Exculpatory evidence is any information that suggests a defendant is innocent. Defendants who prove that exculpatory evidence was withheld during their trial are entitled to a new one under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brady v. Maryland ruling.
The pair named the nonprofit “Freedom Ain’t Free” because of the way innocent people are railroaded in the justice system.
“‘Freedom ain’t free’ is one of my sayings,” Craighead says. “There is no justice in the justice system. It’s something I learned in prison. Freedom will cost you.”
Now the goal is to help prisoners who can’t afford to prove their innocence.
“You’re keeping the community in danger instead of protecting and serving by falsely imprisoning the wrong person,” Monson says. “The real person is out there. People need to see that this could have been prevented. No one wants to take accountability for their actions.”
Both men have led recent protests, calling on prosecutors and police to investigate Simon and the cases she handled.
