From an email by Josh Tepfer (with permission):
I’m delighted to share the news that in a 23-page decision issued today, Judge Janet Allen of the Kalkaska Circuit Court vacated the conviction of Jamie Lee Peterson and ordered a new trial. Mr. Peterson has been incarcerated for over 17 years. The post-conviction work that led to this new trial was a joint effort of students and attorneys from the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School (attorney team led by Caitlin Plummer and Dave Moran) and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law (attorney team of me and Steve Drizin). The opinion is attached.
Mr. Peterson was convicted of the October 1996 rape and murder of 69-year-old Geraldine Montgomery in her own home. The heinous nature of the crime shocked this small, sleepy town in northwest Michigan. Ms. Montgomery, who lived alone and was a pillar of the community, was found asphyxiated in the trunk of her own car with the engine running and the garage closed. The police immediately concluded that she was a victim of sexual assault given that her vaginal swab showed male semen. On her shirt, moreover, was a stain of her saliva mixed with male seminal DNA.
The crime was unsolved for four months when Jamie Lee Peterson made a detailed confession during a mostly audio recorded confession. Peterson, who has organic brain damage and mental illness, confessed to committing the crime himself. After the confession, the rudimentary DNA testing available was conducted on the vaginal swab. That testing excluded Mr. Peterson as the source of the male DNA. DNA testing on the shirt stain, however, was unable to be conducted given the state of the technology at the time. After the testing, the police re-interrogated Mr. Peterson, explaining to him that the DNA testing proved it was him but also showed that he was lying about having no accomplices. Over the next several days, Mr. Peterson confessed again, recanted, and then confessed again and again and again. In total, he confessed roughly six or seven times to police. During these confessions, he named several accomplices, but further DNA testing and police investigation cleared all of these named accomplices. The audiotapes also reveal Peterson failing to get basic, uncontroversial facts about the crime scene correct unless he was specifically told the details by the police. For example, Peterson continually got wrong the clothes the victim was wearing, or where the rape occurred. Only after being provided the correct information would Peterson include this information within his subsequent confessions.
Ultimately, the State concluded that they believed Peterson guilty and that he was merely unwilling to name his accomplice. They prosecuted him under the great unindicted co-ejaculator theory. They argued that Peterson was likely responsible for the untestable stain on the victim’s shirt, and his unknown accomplice was responsible for the vaginal swab. Peterson was convicted in 1998.
Over the next decade and a half, all of Peterson’s appeals failed. Moreover, earlier post-conviction requests for DNA testing using updated technology that could identify the source of the male DNA in the vaginal swab were blocked by the prosecution and refused by the courts. This was perhaps the oddest fact about the case – the State theorized that there was an unknown accomplice who was responsible for the vaginal swab, but they refused to try and identify this person.
In May 2013, after retaining Mr. Peterson, attorneys from the Michigan Innocence Clinic and the Center on Wrongful Convictions met with the Michigan State Police and the current Kalkaska County prosecutor and persuaded a new regime to conduct the requested DNA testing. This DNA testing resulted in identifying the source of the male DNA in the vaginal swab. Further, technology had advanced to the point where testing could now be conducted on the shirt stain. That testing showed that the male on that shirt stain was the same person as in the vaginal swab. The DNA did not support a theory of two perpetrators. A full scale re-investigation by the Michigan State Police resulted in the arrest of this man – Jason Ryan – earlier this year. No credible evidence has been established to indicate that Ryan and Peterson had any association. Ryan has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Despite this new evidence and the Ryan arrest, the prosecutors have still objected to any relief for Mr. Peterson. After extensive briefing and an oral argument last month, the court issued this opinion today. It is a glorious opinion with some great language on how to analyze claims prospectively and on false confessions.
Many students contributed to this effort from two different big ten schools! It was a great collaborative clinical experience and we are delighted for Mr. Peterson. Great day! I want to send a shoot out to Mr. Peterson’s trial and appellate attorneys, Robert Carey and Al Millstein. They fought an uphill battle for many years in this small community but never gave up believing in Mr. Peterson.
Joshua A. Tepfer
Clinical Assistant Professor
Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth
Northwestern University School of Law
Wrongful Convictions Blog 
Would it be possible to read Judge Allen’s opinion?
And ….. goddamn prosecutors.
Congratulations! This is great news.
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