FOX 2 - "People out there that have never been locked up, sure they can look at the news or whatever and say this guy has been locked up for 18 years and six months later they forget about it," said Mubarez Ahmed. (For) us that's been incarcerated, this is something (that) all our lives, we have to drag with."
But for Mubarez Ahmed, that burden may get a bit lighter. Wrongfully convicted of a double homicide in 2002, Ahmed spent nearly 18 years in prison.
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After serving 18 years for double murder he never did, exoneree asks why officer is still on force
Wrongfully convicted of a double homicide in 2002, Mubarez Ahmed spent nearly 18 years in prison
He missed his daughter's childhood. His 5-year-old son, 18-year-old brother, and his mother died while he was incarcerated.
"This cop didn't just take 18 years of my life, he took everything I love," said Ahmed. "Where are the consequences for him? Why is he still on the force?"
Ahmed and his attorney filed a $105 million lawsuit against the Detroit police sergeant who handled the investigation, alleging he made up evidence and lied about witnesses to get a conviction.
The city of Detroit, which is representing the officer, tried to get the case thrown out, saying there was not enough evidence to overcome qualified immunity. But a federal judge recently decided the case could move forward.
"If we go to trial we're going to have two sitting judges, two former prosecutors, all of whom are going to testify and have testified under oath - if they had known what this officer did, there would have never been a trial, there wouldn't even have been an arrest warrant," said attorney Wolfgang Mueller.
The University of Michigan's Innocence Clinic worked on Ahmed's case for nearly a decade. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's Conviction Integrity Unit also probed the case: it unearthed new evidence and recommended the murder charges against Ahmed be dropped.
Ahmed was exonerated in 2018.
"All these cases are clustered around the 1990s and early 2000s," Mueller said. "And we need to hold those folks responsible in order to send a message to the police officers who are on the force, the good officers; you can't just cut corners to close a case."
Worthy is looking to get an extra $800,000 in funding from the county to expand the Conviction Integrity Unit. She also wants to provide exonerees like Ahmed with free college and other services.
The CIU has granted 20 exonerations since its start in 2018.
FOX 2 contacted the city of Detroit's legal team for a statement but they said they do not comment on pending litigation. As for the lawsuit, any payout would come from Detroit taxpayers. The city is self-insured and covers any lawsuit or settlement with money from its General Fund.
Mubarez Ahmed