WHITMER, NESSEL, WORTHY TERRORIZE WOMEN AT HURON ‘VALLEY OF DEATH,’ EXONEREES, WRONGFULLY CONVICTED

CRIMINAL OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE FOR AGONIZING WHV DEATHS, TORTURE OF EXONEREES WITH RE-TRIALS, INNOCENTS’ CONVICTIONS

Women at Huron Valley die while Nessel stonewalls federal lawsuit after judge denied damage immunity to Director Heidi Washington, Shawn Brewer, other MDOC officials

Whitmer has refused clemency to Krystal Clark, near death from WHV horrors, and to many innocent prisoners

Worthy, Nessel continue prosecution of exonerees linked to Vincent Smothers, who courageously confessed in court to crimes in exonerees Sanford, Searcy cases

Nessel convicts Smothers of falsifying affidavit in Shannon Anderson case, says she will investigate others.

Nessel has never charged hundreds of lying, corrupt cops and prosecutors who have wrongfully convicted thousands in the MDOC over the decades.

Editorial by VOD Editor Diane Bukowski

May 30, 2026

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Rebecca Fackler, Khaira Howard

Are Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, engaged in a campaign of terror against prisoners fighting deadly conditions and wrongful convictions by corrupt prosecutors and police?

Khaira Howard and Rebecca Fackler died May 13 and May 17 at the Women’s Huron “Valley of Death” prison due to conditions including black mold and filthy ventilation systems, adding to a long list of deaths. Others like Krystal Clark are on the verge of death, but Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has refused to commute her sentence to allow hospitalization at home.

WHV women are dying while AG Nessel stonewalls a federal lawsuit they filed in 2019. The prisoners won a historic ruling recognizing the horrific conditions and denying immunity to MDOC Director Heidi Washington and dozens of other WHV officials in 2025. Nessel appealed the denial of immunity to the Sixth Circuit, causing a delay in discovery that would lead to final orders for remediation.

Nessel’s attorneys argued, “There are no cases establishing a prisoner’s right to be free from these molds, . . . that it is not clearly established that any type of mold at WHV is sufficiently dangerous to incarcerated people, and even if it were clearly established that certain molds were dangerous enough to implicate the 8th Amendment it is not clearly established that prison officials need to take any particular action to remediate the presence of mold.”

Complete opinion by US District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy 6/24/25 at: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/USCOURTS-mied-2_19-cv-13442-5-Bailey-v-Washington.pdf

AG DANA NESSEL, MDOC’S SHAWN BREWER TARGET VINCENT SMOTHERS, WHO AIDED DAVONTAE SANFORD, THELONIOUS SEARCY EXONERATIONS

(VOD has been covering “Daubert” hearings currently being held in Thelonious Searcy’s case. Separate story coming on those.)

Last year, AG Dana Nessel charged Vincent Smothers and another prisoner, Shannon Anderson, with obstruction of justice and possession of a contraband cell phone. They were later convicted and sentenced to varying terms.

Shannon Anderson

“Fabricating testimony or evidence in order to defraud the courts drives a stake into the heart of our criminal justice system,” Nessel said in a press release. “Exposing such conduct and ensuring that false evidence is not submitted to or accepted by our courts is vital to the safety and wellbeing of Michigan residents.”

Nessel said at a broadly covered press conference that her office continues to look at other cases to determine whether Smothers took credit for crimes he didn’t commit or offered false information. She suggested money was the motivating factor for Smothers.

Nessel has displayed shameless audacity in targeting Smothers and Anderson in prison, while never charging hundreds of cops from Detroit and Wayne County who lied and conspired to send thousands of men and women to prison, many to life without parole sentences. Nessel has never charged any of the lying, corrupt cops shown below, who have been featured in VOD stories on wrongful convictions. They are living their lives in the world outside the walls, making good salaries and pensions, raising their families, partying and playing sports, attending weddings and graduations, having a great time while their victims slowly die a little bit every day in prison.

The mainstream media has jumped onto the bandwagon in full force, featuring contemptuous stories like the Detroit News article by George Hunter, headlined, “Detroit “Hitman for Hire” Becomes Convicted Liar-for-Hire.”

These charges were deliberately brought to target Thelonious Searcy, who is being re-tried a second time despite days of detailed testimony in court by Vincent Smothers confessing to the murder involved in his case during a 2018 evidentiary hearing.

VOD covered every day of that evidentiary hearing. We were highly impressed by Smothers’ courageous testimony. He never took the stand in the Davontae Sanford case, He submitted his confession to the murders of four men in an alleged drug house that Detroit cops had pinned on a 14-year-old child through his attorney, who would not let him testify. In the Searcy case, he deliberately ignored that attorney’s advice, and insisted on testifying on the stand, saying that he had long intended to address the wrongful convictions of Sanders and Searcy.

That testimony, along with falsified ballistics reports, caused a Michigan Court of Appeals panel to overturn Searcy’s conviction Feb. 11, 2021, accusing trial judge Timothy Kenny of an abuse of judicial discretion for (See box at left.)

They resulted in a resounding ruling from 3rd CC Judge Thomas Hathaway dismissing the charges WITH PREJUDICE in 2022.

Hathaway cited the prosecution’s ongoing refusals to produce exculpatory evidence, indicating that he did not expect Searcy to EVER get a fair trial by this Prosecutor’s Office.

Now Searcy being re-tried a second time, s in front of the highly conservative WCC Judge Margaret Van Houten, previously a Dearborn Heights politician and currently active with the East Side Republican Club.

Smothers was previously set to testify during that re-trial, but it was delayed after the Michigan Supreme Court ordered Van Houten to conduct a “Daubert” hearing examining the credentials of State of Michigan firearms and ballistics experts the prosecution wants to bring forward. The MSC overruled her refusal to hold the hearing, saying that it was an abuse of HER discretion.

Detroit Free Press reporter Tresa Baldas earlier interviewed Searcy’s attorney Michael Dezsi, who said, “While the prosecutors have always made clear they don’t believe Smothers, they have never produced any evidence whatsoever to support their claim that Smothers’ confession was false or paid for. If they have evidence that Smothers’ confession is false, or paid for, they have yet to produce such evidence to me or to the court.”

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