Detroiter tells story about conviction, exoneration

The last time Darrell Siggers was a free man, President Ronald Reagan was in office. When the 20-year-old from Detroit was incarcerated, he wasn’t legally allowed to drink alcohol; now he’s eligible for senior discounts.

Spending nearly 35 years in prison, Siggers, now 55, missed 3½ decades serving a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit. Now he’s been exonerated and is on a mission to share his story across the county, including a trip to Monroe. “I’m grateful,” Siggers said. “All I can do is keep moving forward, and I’m having a blast.”

Siggers joined former World Boxing Organization titleholder Bronco McKart and Aaron Lavender for a two-part interview on their weekly Monroe Public Access Cable Television program, “I See Grey with CLASS.” The program became a forum for community conversations aimed at improving local relationships, building trust, and promoting awareness and diversity education.

McKart was connected with Siggers after attending a local boxing match with attorney Wolfgang Mueller, who specializes in wrongful conviction cases and brought Siggers to the fight as a way of celebrating his release.

During the two 30-minute segments, Siggers shared his story of wrongful conviction, detailing his arrest, incarceration, and eventual exoneration. Siggers was arrested and charged with first-degree murder Feb. 22, 1984, after 25-year-old James Montgomery was gunned down while walking with two friends on the east side of Detroit. The friends told police they recognized the gunman as Siggers, whom they’d seen earlier at a party, despite admitting to being under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time.

“Over and over again during police questioning, there was someone screaming in my face, ‘I know you did this, I know you did this,’” Siggers said. “His breath smelled so bad, I can still smell it today.”

In July 1984, Siggers went to trial in Wayne County. A Detroit police sergeant testified that shell casings found at the scene had been fired by the same weapon, and that the casings and a bullet recovered across the hall from Siggers’ apartment came from the same weapon — although the gun was never recovered. After three days of deliberation, a jury found Siggers guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison with no opportunity for parole.

“There was no worse feeling than the feeling of powerlessness that I was feeling while I was sitting there in court,” Siggers said. “It was one of the scariest things of my life.”

While incarcerated, Siggers became committed to studying law to prove his innocence. While other inmates were playing cards or exercising, Siggers was in the law library. Throughout the years, he filed several appeals and motions for retrial that were consistently denied. Eventually, a new expert reviewed the case and determined it was highly unlikely the bullets at the scene could be connected to Siggers’ apartment building.

On July 19, 2018, Siggers’ attorney and prosecutors filed a joint motion to vacate his conviction. He was released Aug. 30 and charges were dismissed Oct. 19.

“You’re a living example of what books can do for someone, what an education can do for someone,” Lavender said during the interview.

Since being exonerated, Siggers founded Access Plus, a program based in Southfield that helps prisoners and their families with low-cost innocence claims.