DETROIT (AP) A Detroit man who spent 16 years behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of fatally shooting a teenager is now a free man after a judge vacated his convictions. Dennis Atkins, 38, walked out of a state prison Friday in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula after a Wayne County judge vacated his convictions in the 2005 murder of 17-year-old Billie Rutledge, WXYZ-TV reported.
When a Wayne County judge asked Dennis Atkins if he had any objection to her vacating his convictions on murder, assault, and weapons, and dismissing the case itself, he replied, "Not at all."
When Kevin Harrington called loved ones from prison, he used the words "blessed and highly favored" as the recording used to identify inmates when making collect calls.