Michigan Man Walks Free After 25 Years Following Coerced Confession

A Detroit man spent over two decades behind bars after a corrupt police investigator forced him to sign a false confession to murder. George Calicut Jr. was released Tuesday when prosecutors acknowledged his innocence in the 1999 killing.

A Detroit resident walked out of prison Tuesday after spending more than a quarter-century incarcerated based on what prosecutors now admit was a forced confession extracted by a corrupt police detective.

George Calicut Jr., 56, emerged from the Coldwater, Michigan correctional facility sporting a Detroit Lions sweatshirt and broad grin as he embraced his attorneys. He had been serving life without parole for a 1999 homicide.

Calicut has consistently maintained his innocence in the death of Virgie Perkins, claiming he never laid eyes on the supposed confession statement until it was presented during his trial. The case against him lacked eyewitness testimony and physical evidence linking him to the crime.

Recent DNA analysis has “further supports the lack of any evidence” tying Calicut to the fatal attack at Perkins’ residence, according to a joint statement from Wayne County prosecutors and defense attorneys.

“Clearing Calicut reflects this office’s unwavering commitment to the integrity of convictions and the credibility of the system,” stated Valerie Newman, who leads the conviction integrity unit.

A judge threw out the charges following a request from both prosecution and defense teams, allowing Calicut’s immediate release.

Legal representation came from the University of Michigan Law School’s Innocence Clinic, with additional support from the Cooley Innocence Project at Cooley Law School.

The original charges alleged Calicut strangled Perkins and slashed her throat during a robbery at her home, stealing cash and a telephone. While Calicut acknowledged taking a phone from Perkins’ son the following day, he insisted he retrieved it from a car.

During the original trial, Detroit homicide detective Barbara Simon admitted she had written Calicut’s supposed confession statement before he signed it. Despite Calicut’s testimony denying the confession’s accuracy, jurors convicted him of murder, triggering an automatic life sentence without parole.

“Simon told Mr. Calicut, who had no prior interactions with police, that she could help him by creating a statement that would reduce the charge to manslaughter, which would allow him to get a bond and go home,” prosecutors and defense lawyers wrote in their four-page dismissal agreement.

Attempts to contact Simon, who has since retired from the Detroit Police Department, were unsuccessful as her phone went unanswered.

The city of Detroit has paid out millions in lawsuit settlements connected to Simon’s conduct during her tenure as a homicide detective.

Court records indicate the original prosecutor was Mike Cox, who went on to become Michigan’s attorney general and is currently seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Cox did not respond to requests for comment regarding the exoneration.