BATTLE CREEK (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court has cleared the way for a new trial for a Battle Creek-area woman who insists she’s innocent of criminal sexual conduct against a child.
In an order released last week, the court says the appeals court used the wrong legal standard in stopping a new trial for Lorinda Swain.
Swain was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
But her conviction was set aside by a Calhoun County judge after Swain claimed a former boyfriend who didn’t appear at trial would have given favorable testimony.
The judge said it was new evidence.
Justice Bridget McCormack didn’t participate in the Supreme Court decision. Before joining the court, she was Swain’s lawyer at the University of Michigan law school’s Innocence Clinic.
- Posted May 23, 2016
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State high court OKs new trial for woman
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