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Lifelong friends Michael Sutton and Kenny Phillips both served 15 years in prison for attempted murder but had their convictions overturned and are now heading to college. Back in May 2006, they went out to celebrate Phillips’ 18th birthday in Cleveland, Ohio, and ended up in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
The Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to get wrongfully convicted people released from prison, represented Sutton in court and helped secure his release. According to the Innocence Project, on the night of their arrest, Sutton and Phillips were on their way home with two friends when the passengers of a nearby car fired shots into a different vehicle, injuring those inside. Sutton, Phillips and their two friends were arrested for the crime, but only Sutton and Phillips were convicted, but they always maintained their innocence.
Last September, the friends had their convictions overturned and just last week, the University of Akron gave them full scholarships to earn their college degrees, and they both plan to start in the fall. Sutton had a full ride scholarship to be a student there before his arrest, but he never made it, until now. “It feels like a dream come true,” he says. “This was something I always dreamed about but being locked in prison for so long I didn’t think it could happen.”
Source: ABC News