MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (WXYZ) — It’s been a long road for Mack Howell, who the Macomb County prosecutor said was wrongly convicted of robbing a 7-Eleven in Eastpointe in April 2014. He went to prison in 2016.
Howell lost seven and a half years of his life in prison. He was overcome with emotion at a press conference Wednesday and broke down in tears while surrounded by the attorneys who helped secure his release, other exonerees and family who supported him along the way.
When asked what advice he'd give to inmates who are in the same predicament he was in, Howell responded, “I just tell them to be strong and work hard."
The 7-Eleven at 10 Mile Road and Kelly Road was robbed in 2014. Attorneys at Wednesday's press conference said he maintained his innocence all along.
In 2021, the University of Michigan Innocence Clinic found the evidence in the case didn't point toward Howell.
“As soon as we took this case, it was completely clear to us that this was a miscarriage of justice. Mr. Howell is some 6 to 7 inches shorter than the robber that we all saw in the video. He is completely incapable of having dashed out of the store on the video did. The identifications in this case were among the worst we have ever seen," David Moran with the Michigan Innocence Clinic said.
The Macomb County prosecutor said there are 32,000 people currently in prison in Michigan. It’s estimated that 2% to 5% could be innocent. So, that’s anywhere from 640 to 1,600 people wrongly imprisoned.
Sixty-two-year-old Howell’s conviction happened under the previous Macomb County Prosecutor Erik Smith.
Current Prosecutor Pete Lucido launched the Macomb County Conviction Integrity Unit to take a look at cases like this.
“Sometimes you’ll find just something that will make you realize that the justice was injustice and in this case there was," Lucido said.
He credits Assistant Prosecutor Gail Pamukov, chief of the integrity unit, with getting Howell a new start in life.
“We investigated and reviewed and investigated and reviewed and finally, we decided that we could not support this conviction. These units are the Hail Mary of the legal system, of the criminal justice system," Pamukov said.
Howell said, “It’s amazing. I feel good.”
Lucido said at the time, a string of other 7-Eleven robberies took place in the area. But investigators — for reasons unknown — didn't look into possible connections. The suspect in that case pleaded guilty in 2015.
Howell is entitled to receive about $320,000 from the state under the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act, according to his attorney Wolf Mueller. Mueller said a civil suit will be filed in the near future.
