Detroit Man Released from Prison After 34 Years of Wrongful Incarceration

Darrell Siggers was released from prison after spending 34 years behind bars for a murder he maintains he did not commit. In 1984, Siggers was convicted of murder in Wayne County, Michigan, and sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors agreed to vacate Siggers’ conviction because the ballistics evidence and witness testimony presented at his trial have since been disputed. At trial, Detroit Police Sgt. Claude Houseworth testified that bullets recovered from the victim, the crime scene, and Siggers’ home were discharged from the same gun. The gun was never recovered.

Michael Waldo, Siggers’ attorney with the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, presented testimony from a ballistics expert who found fault with Houseworth’s findings.

Waldo wrote in a court document: “In 2015, Mr. David Townshend, a retired Michigan State Trooper with more than 20 years of experience in the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory Firearms Identification Unit, conducted an independent review. Mr. Townshend determined that Sgt. Houseworth’s conclusions were ‘erroneous,’ ‘unbelievable’ and ‘highly improbable.’”

David Balash, a retired Michigan State Police firearms examiner, also reviewed the ballistics evidence presented at Siggers’ trial and determined that Houseworth’s testimony was “both confusing and at times totally inaccurate.”

Further testing on the ballistics evidence could not be completed because Detroit police destroyed the evidence in 2003. In 2008, the Detroit Police crime lab was shut down after a State Police audit discovered a high error rate in firearms cases.

Siggers’ re-trial was scheduled for December. Until then, Siggers planned to spend time with his three children and eight grandchildren, and to enroll in college courses to advance the associate degree he earned while incarcerated.