Michigan Black Man Serves As His Own Lawyer And Gets Burglary Conviction Appealed

Source: Michigan Department of Corrections / Michigan Department of Correction

A Michigan Black man has defied the odds by convincing a judge to throw out his burglary conviction while representing himself during his appeal case.

According to AP, Gregory Tucker, 65, argued that the DNA found on a soda bottle wasn’t sufficient enough to convict him in the 2018 break-in near Detroit.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson agreed with Tucker, stating the prosecution’s DNA claims were unsupported.

“Any inference that (Tucker) must have deposited his DNA on the bottle during the course of the burglary was pure speculation unsupported by any positive proof in the record,” Lawson wrote in his Aug. 1 ruling.

In 2016, Gregory Tucker was charged with burglary after being accused of breaking into a beauty shop in Ferndale. According to reports, $10,000 was stolen, along with a television, a computer and a wall clock.

Tucker was charged after his DNA was found on a Coke bottle found at the beauty shop, but authorities never matched a second person’s DNA also found on the bottle.

While he was in prison, Tucker told AP he was “overwhelmed” by the judge’s decision and still had no idea how a bottle with his DNA ended up at the scene of a crime.

“A pop bottle has monetary value,” Tucker said. “You can leave a bottle on the east side and it can end up on the west side that same day.”

Although Gregory Tucker beat the odds in his burglary case, he still hasn’t been freed. He is still serving time for a separate conviction and can’t leave prison until the parole board decides to release him, according to AP. Michigan’s attorney general office has also said they plan on appealing Judge Lawson’s decision to throw up Tucker’s 2018 burglary case.

Tucker might have won the battle, but he’s yet to win the war. Regardless, he’s impressed lawyers like Anne Yantus, who spent 30 years at the State Appellate Defender Office.

“I’m just impressed that this is a man who had enough confidence in himself and his legal skills to represent himself with a habeas claim,” Yantus told AP. Habeas refers to habeas corpus, the Latin term for a last-ditch appeal. The success rate of an appeal from an incarcerated person representing themself is very rare.

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