The City Council on Tuesday authorized a $4 million settlement payment to a Detroit man who served more than 22 years in prison on a wrongful conviction.
LaVone Hill filed a federal lawsuit in 2025 against the city and several of its officers, arguing that they coerced false testimony from witnesses and that they hid and fabricated evidence in his case.
Hill was released from prison in October 2024 after a Wayne County judge vacated his double murder conviction following an investigation by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Conviction Integrity Unit. Hill was the 44th wrongfully convicted person freed by the work of the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.
Detroit’s Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett Jr. said in a memo to the City Council that the Law Department reviewed the suit, facts and other details provided to council in a confidential memo and said that the settlement was “in the best interest of the City of Detroit.” The council approved the settlement without discussion.
Hill’s attorney Shereef Akeel told BridgeDetroit Tuesday that they are pleased that Hill will receive “some measure of justice for a crime he never committed.”
“Make no mistake, no money can replace the time Mr. Hill lost being behind bars,” Akeel added. “Additionally, due to unique legal circumstances in this case, Mr. Hill could only be compensated for just part of his time.”
After his conviction was vacated in 2024, Hill said that he was happy to be free but sad for other innocent men left in prison behind him.
“I am also very sad that the families of the victims lost their loved ones and were lied to about me being the guy who killed him,” Hill said in comments posted on the UM Law Center website via the Innocence Clinic following the 2024 decision.
On Sept. 8, 2001, 28-year-old Dushawn Luchie, Sr., and 24-year-old Ronnie Craft were shot and killed on Keating Street in Detroit following a game of dice, according to court documents.
The initial responding DPD investigators did not locate any witnesses to the shooting, and no physical or forensic evidence was recovered tying any suspects to the scene.
A few nights later, police picked up an alleged witness to the shooting on unrelated drug charges. The witness — who could neither read nor write proficiently — was detained for a week. It was during that time that Detroit Police Department Sgt. Walter Bates wrote a false statement for the detainee to sign. The false statement claimed that the witness saw Hill shoot the victims with a handgun while walking down the street. No other witnesses ever implicated Hill in the crime, according to the Innocence Clinic.
During Hill’s 2002 trial, the alleged sole witness recanted his false statement. He instead testified that Hill had not been present on the night of the shooting and that Bates had allegedly coerced his false statement. Bates testified that he had not.
Hill also testified at his trial, saying he did not commit the murders and that he was at home with his girlfriend at the time the shootings had occurred.
A jury convicted Hill of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
The decision to vacate Hill’s convictions came after the discovery of several pieces of new evidence by Hill’s attorneys at the Michigan Innocence Clinic. Among the new information: two independent witnesses present on the night of the shooting who swore that Hill had not been present at the dice game and ballistic evidence confirming that a high-powered rifle was the murder weapon, rather than a handgun, as stated in the prior witness’s recanted statement. Additionally, the son of one of the victims said that another man had confessed to killing his father, according to the Innocence Clinic.
New evidence also showed that Bates was suspended from the police force multiple times during Hill’s case — including while Bates testified in the case, a fact that was not disclosed to either the defense or the jury at the time of trial. Bates, who amassed significant gambling debt, was using his experience in the Detroit Police Department to mastermind a string of bank robberies while this case was pending. Bates was later convicted of bank robbery and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.
After Hill’s convictions were vacated, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy issued a statement referencing Bates’ “massive and ongoing criminal behavior.”
“As a result, it is clear that Mr. Hill did not receive a fair trial. He will not be retried because there is no way in the world that this office would put Walter Bates on any witness stand,” Worthy said at the time. “Not much shocks me anymore, but this did.”
