Opinion ID: 4219363
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Underlying State Court Proceedings

Text: In 2007, D’Anglo Savage and Tommy Haney were shot to death while sitting in a parked vehicle in Detroit. People v. Williams, No. 292909, 2010 WL 4026077, at  (Mich. Ct. App. Oct. 14, 2010). The Detroit Police arrested Williams shortly after their deaths. Id. During questioning following his arrest, Williams confessed to shooting multiple rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle into Savage’s vehicle in order to avenge the deaths of Williams’ cousins, who were killed two days earlier. Id. On July 10, 2007, Williams was arraigned before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (“felony firearm”). Judge Allen thereafter presided over a bench trial in the matter, which began on March 26, 2008. During the bench trial, the prosecutor presented evidence that Williams was the only shooter (hereafter referred to as the “one-shooter theory”). This theory was based on a Detroit Police Department investigation and related forensic testing. However, experts from the Michigan State Police testified that shell casings recovered from the crime scene actually showed the presence of two guns, as opposed to one. This expert testimony raised serious questions about the accuracy of the forensic testing underlying the prosecution’s theory of the case. Judge Allen eventually declared a mistrial and subsequently recused himself. The case was then reassigned to Judge Timothy Kenny. Before the re-trial, the prosecution offered a plea deal to drop the two first-degree murder charges if Williams pled no contest to a new charge of second-degree murder and to the felonyfirearm charge. Under that agreement, Williams would be sentenced to twelve to thirty years in prison for second-degree murder, and a consecutive two-year term for felony firearm. Williams 2 No. 16-1687, Williams v. Burton accepted the plea and sentencing was scheduled; however, prior to sentencing, Williams moved to withdraw his plea and the trial court granted his motion. On March 5, 2009, at a hearing before the second trial was commenced, Williams’ trial counsel Marvin Barnett (“Barnett”) appeared before Judge Kenny to argue various pretrial motions. During a soliloquy, Barnett stated on the record that he never negotiates with the prosecutor’s office. Barnett further stated that the deal for his client, Williams, was inappropriate and that he was not willing to trade two deaths for ten years, noting that “[t]he bodies of these persons were worth more than 10 to 12 years and it was wrong . . . . I’m fighting for everybody here today and the family.” Later in the hearing, Barnett asserted that the prosecution should not be permitted to deviate from the one-shooter theory at the second trial and should not be able to argue that Williams was guilty under the theory that he aided and abetted a second shooter. Barnett acknowledged that his argument was a “stretch,” and that he only brought it up because of