In 1989, Mr Poole was convicted of the murder of Robert Mejia, who was stabbed to death and found near a running path in Pontiac, a city in Michigan, the year before. Mr Poole’s girlfriend told police that he had confessed to her that he met Mejia in a bar and later killed him during a violent robbery attempt and a dentist linked him to a bite mark on the victim. He repeatedly denied any role in the murder and had spent years challenging his conviction with the support of the Innocence Project at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School (WMU-Cooley Innocence Project).