PAUL CLARK hugs his son and daughter after his release from prison by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens in May, 2024. On July 23, 2024, Judge Slavens dismissed all charges against him without prejudice, after Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy decided not to pursue another trial on the first-degree murder charges. Photo: Courtesy Akeel and Valentine Law Firm.
Wayne 3rd Circuit Court Judge Mark T. Slavens dismisses charges against Michigan Lifer Paul Clark July 23 after ordering new trial April 24, 2024
Judge Slavens freed Clark on a tether April 24, 2o24, ordering a new trial: said “actual innocence” likely, cited suppression under Brady v. Maryland
Wayne Co. Conviction Integrity Unit found key evidence, but denied relief 4 years ago for unknown reasons
Read Judge Slavens’ order and opinion at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Paul-Clark-Order-Judge-Slavens-4-24-24.pdf
Roberto Guzman
By Roberto Guzman, VOD Guest Contributor
July 24. 2024
It is said that the wheels of justice sometimes do not turn fast enough. And in the case of Paul Clark, that rings so true. Thirty-seven years ago, an innocent man was escorted out the back doors of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, wrongfully convicted of a murder he truly did not commit. And now today, thirty-seven years later, he walks proudly out the front door of that same court, a free man, victorious in the cause of justice. Paul never gave up hope, never wavered in his fight to vindicate his name; never surrendered his belief that one day he would be free from this arduous and painful odyssey to freedom.
A brief summary of his case is worth noting to understand how we reached this point today. In February 1987, the victim, named Trifu Visilje, was lured by a prostitute out of a bar in the city of Highland Park into a trap of an armed robber who announced a holdup as Mr. Visilje approached. Mr. Visilje put up a struggle and was shot to death. But not before he pulled out a “hook knife” and slashed his killer across the face.
Six weeks later, the killer was arrested by police for carrying a concealed firearm and bore that fresh scar across his face. Paul Clark, it must be pointed out, never bore that scar then; nor does he bear that scar today.
Approximately three months after that murder, the killer, a man named Alex Scott (it would later be learned in 1990), using the same modus operandi, killed another unwitting victim by having a prostitute lure him outside of a bar and into his trap where he announced a robbery. This murder happened in the same neighborhood only two blocks away from the Visilje murder.
Significantly, Mr. Scott pled guilty to the May 1987 murder which bore all similarities to the Visilje murder.
Because the Visilje murder occurred on the border between Detroit and Highland Park, it was a joint homicide investigation involving both police agencies.
Paul Clark was convicted based solely on the testimony of two witnesses, one who stated he saw Paul in the area of the murder just before it happened; another who testified falsely that he met up with Paul just before the murder and Paul told him he was casing the neighborhood looking to rob someone that night.
Paul was convicted of the Visilje murder and sentenced to life without parole in late 1987. There was no physical evidence that linked Paul to the crime; nor did he confess to the murder.
Fast forward to 1990: another prisoner who was locked away in the same prison as Alex Scott had a discussion with him about the scar on Mr. Scott’s face and said Mr. Scott confessed to him how he got the scar in the course of killing Mr. Visilje. Several years after that discussion with Mr. Scott, that inmate later met Paul at another prison and upon discussing Paul’s case with him, he told Paul what Mr. Scott had confessed to him years earlier.
That inmate provided Paul an affidavit and that spawned several appeals on a relief from judgment motion with one court ruling in Paul’s favor; while a higher court reversed and reinstated his conviction.
Many years after that, after Paul obtained copies of the homicide file, he learned FOR THE FIRST TIME that the victim had slashed his killer across his face and was found with a bloodied hook knife in his hand at the crime scene.
The police were also aware that Mr. Scott had committed a similar murder only two weeks later in the same neighborhood using the same modus operandi. These were details the police never disclosed to the defense at the time Paul was on trial in 1987 for the Visilje murder.
Paul never gave up the fight for his freedom. Upon learning details of the Visilje murder, including the fact he slashed his killer across the face with the hook knife and having among his arsenal the affidavit of the 1990 jailhouse inmate, Mr. Clark was assisted by the Michigan Innocence Clinic in reopening his appeals and in late 2018-2019, they took his case before the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit for review.
Wayne Co. Pros. Kym Worthy endorses Karen McDonald for Oakland County Prosecutor in 2020. McDonald withdrew 19 juvenile life without parole recommendations in Jan. 2021, but Worthy did not follow suit, maintaining 51 on record.
In 2020, another bombshell dropped on the case which further undermined the prosecutor’s case against Mr. Clark and only further underscored his claims that police deliberately and intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence of Alex Scott as being an alternative suspect. Namely, the CIU discovered Alexis Scott’s mugshot from the May 1987 murder bearing that fresh scar across his face for the Visilje murder.
The CIU then presented a recommendation to prosecutor Kym Worthy to vacate Mr. Clark’s conviction and set him free. She refused without giving any rationale or reason.
The prosecutor forced Mr. Clark to judicial review and in early 2024, the Honorable Mark T. Slavens vacated his conviction and issued a scathing opinion blasting the police departments for concealing evidence of an alternative suspect. Judge Slavens also took the unusual step for a judge to conclude there was a substantial likelihood of Mr. Clark’s innocence — a queue to the Wayne County Prosecutor of the uphill battle she faced at a new trial.
It should be noted that when the other inmate provided his affidavit in 1990, no one knew that 1987 mugshot that would many years later corroborate his affidavit, existed. In other words, the 1987 mugshot, which wasn’t uncovered until 34 years later, lent credence to that inmate’s affidavit.
Youth in Highland Park outside school board meeting where dozens of their teachers were laid off in 2004. Highland Park police framed Paul Clark in 1987, were they still framing others in 2004? Photo Diane Bukowski, Michigan Citizen 2004.
On July 23, 2023, ONLY after Judge Slavens issued his well-reasoned and cogent opinion awarding Mr. Clark a new trial, Prosecutor Kym Worthy decided to vacate Mr. Clark’s conviction. This was a decision not out of genuine interest for truth and justice, but again, only because the Court had handed the prosecutor a huge defeat in its innocence ruling in the case.
The result? Of the 37 years Mr. Clark wrongfully spent in prison an innocent man, four of those years were due to the decision by the prosecutor when she learned in 2020 of the mugshot photo and still refused to set him free.
Mr. Clark’s case, like many others, is the all-too-familiar tale of corruption, lies and mischief by police and prosecutors hellbent on winning a conviction at all costs, and to confess mistakes or wrongdoing was completely out of the question. But in the end, they are now put to shame. Shame for the lies, deception and treachery that worked a tremendous injustice on this innocent man. In the end, truth prevailed over falsehood, justice over misconduct and light over darkness.
While we share in Paul’s joy at his newfound freedom, true justice has still not come. And I submit, we will never get true justice until the dirty police and prosecutors are compelled to attend these hearings and the handcuffs, when removed from the innocent man, and placed on the dirty police and prosecutors who framed innocent people. True deterrence and true justice will only come when that starts to happen. Put them in prison for their crimes.
RELATED:
Metro Detroit man freed after 37 years in prison (freep.com)
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