Marin students hear freed prisoners discuss wrongful convictions

When she was growing up, Zohie Betts would often watch movies about people who had been wrongly incarcerated — especially Black men.

“I would always have a sense that this is a really big problem in our country,” said Betts, 17, a senior at Terra Linda High School and co-president of the school’s Black Student Union. “I also would have the feeling that maybe there’s something I could do to spread awareness and make a change.”

Recently, she got her chance. Betts reached out to a number of organizations to see if she could arrange a meeting or presentation with former prisoners who had been wrongly convicted and imprisoned and then later freed.

One of the groups, the Organization of Exonerees in Detroit, was interested. Two of the group’s leaders, co-founder and executive director Kenneth Nixon and secretary Eric Anderson, were already touring schools and colleges to talk about their long road to freedom after being incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.

They were willing to add Terra Linda High School to their schedule of appearances. Betts was able to secure a $3,000 donation from OneTL, a parent-led nonprofit organization, to cover the men’s travel and hotel expenses.

“Being able to introduce the issue of wrongful convictions to our community will be helpful in inspiring and finding more advocates to be involved in making a change in our world,” Betts said.

On Tuesday, Anderson, 33, and Nixon, 37, spoke to scores of 11th and 12th graders at Terra Linda High School’s performing arts center about the need to free innocent people in a system that often tends to work against that end — particularly for people of color or who have low incomes.

“I am most proud of being able to help other people who would otherwise go unnoticed,” said Nixon, who was wrongfully convicted of murder, attempted murder and arson. “I am proud to be a voice for the voiceless.”

Nixon, who was at home with his family the night the crimes were committed, was released in 2021 after spending 16 years in prison. Over the years, his family spent $100,000 in legal fees to file appeals. All the appeals were denied, Nixon said.

The Cooley Innocence Project at Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, investigated his case along with the “conviction integrity unit” at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. They found him to be innocent, leading to his release.

Anderson was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery. He was freed in 2019 after spending nine years in prison.

“I was sentenced to 15 to 22 years in prison as an innocent man,” he said.

Anderson’s case was investigated by the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School as well as the Wayne County prosecutors’ team. They determined he was innocent and secured his release.

The group was able to identify the real perpetrator and bring him to justice, Anderson said.

“Really being able to gain an understanding of the need for change is huge,” Nixon said. “Being able to speak to high school students and college students is important, because it’s our way of affecting the future.”

Terra Linda High School student Kaia Whitehouse said she was deeply affected by the former inmates’ stories.

“It really moved me — I started crying a couple times,” said Whitehouse, 14. “Just the fact that they can be so resilient in the way they hold their pride.”

Betts said the event also was a chance to help heal students’ connections with police after years of conflict. Several Marin schools have wrestled with complaints that the police on their campuses were targeting students of color.

In September 2020, San Rafael City Schools became the first Marin school district to end its partnership with police. The district, which includes Terra Linda High School, removed school resource officers, or SROs, from its campuses.

“Even though our police system has its faults, at the end of the day there are police officers who are good people and that we need help from,” Betts said. “This will hopefully create a better way for students to feel more comfortable with a police presence around campus and allow for a transition to better relations with the police.”

Two members of the San Rafael Police Department attended the school event to listen to the former prisoners’ stories, said Katy Dunlap, the school principal.

“Long term, we’re trying to rebuild our relationship with the police — especially school resource officers,” Dunlap said. “All of these things make a difference.”

Betts said she hopes to form a student club for those interested in supporting exonerees through fundraising activities. If some students are inspired to study law so they can prevent wrongful convictions, so much the better, she said.

“I hope it gets more people engaged,” Betts said. “I feel like the more people that have rallied behind you, kind of working toward a certain cause, the better it is — and the more change that can actually happen.”