Walter Swift, who spent 26 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, was finally freed in 2008.
Now, he's trying to get millions of dollars from Detroit as compensation for false arrest, malicious prosecution and false imprisonment, but the bankruptcy is making it unclear if he'll ever get anything in his lawsuit, according to Fox 2's Amy Lange.
"We're in the midst of another travesty, this bankruptcy," attorney Julie Hurwitz says. "He's been sent into a torture chamber for 26 years."
Fox 2 reports:
Walter Swift has been fighting for his life since he was 21 years old and wrongly convicted of a rape he did not commit in 1982.
His release, thanks to the innocence project in 2008, came after their decade-long investigation into the wrongdoing by Detroit police.
"It was a high profile crime," said Julie Hurwitz. "It was a white pregnant woman in Indian Village in 1982 in the city of Detroit. They needed to solve this crime and they had a suspect."
The victim had been attacked and raped in her own home while playing with her toddler.
Detroit police showed her hundreds of photographs of black teenagers - including one that was a few years old, of a teenage Swift, who hadn't been in trouble since he was a juvenile.
"This victim who was clearly traumatized at the time, identified seven other people before she even got to Walter's photograph," Hurwitz said. "Even at the line-up the victim was unable to confidently identify Walter as her rapist."
"This officer, Pavola, knew it was a bad ID."
