Victims memorial unveiled as Ruling is made

[mrsdragoness]

Ruling comes as victims' memorial is to be unveiled

Thursday, June 16, 2005By Steven Hepker
shepker@citpat.com -- 768-4923 James Mentink is among 23 murder victims whose names and pictures are engraved on a memorial that will be unveiled Saturday in Jackson.

As if on cue, a federal court last week reinstated the conviction and life sentence of one of his killers, Geoffrey Burroughs.

"I thought the decision coming now was very apropos," said Mentink's father, Larry Mentink. "For 16 years, I have wanted to turn this tragedy into something positive, and this memorial is a step in that direction."

One of the speakers is District Judge Joseph Filip, who prosecuted Burroughs and his partner, Virgil M. Green, for the murder of the Buddy's Mini Mart clerk on June 17, 1989.

In a move that outraged prosecutors, police and Mentink's family, Circuit Judge Gordon Britten tossed Burroughs' murder conviction in January 1990, saying the jury had insufficient evidence to find him guilty.

The Michigan Court of Appeals reinstated the conviction in 1991, but Burroughs won a federal District Court appeal in 2000. The court vacated his conviction, but the judge kept him in prison pending an appeal by Assistant Prosecutor Jerrold Schrotenboer.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court reversed the lower court decision in 2002. Burroughs then filed a writ of habeus corpus and the U.S. District Court granted all claims, "including prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and denial of the right to a defense in the trial court's failure to admit questioning regarding Burroughs' co-defendant's plea statement."

Again, Schrotenboer appealed to the 6th Circuit and won, this time in a published opinion. The case is extremely complicated and so esoteric that most lawyers can't grasp it, Schrotenboer said.

Burroughs, serving life in prison, has two options: Ask for a re-hearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.







© 2005 Jackson Citizen Patriot. Used with permission


Copyright 2005 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.

[Tuberose]

The original judge must have had a good reason for doing what he did. That doesn't happen easily. I have a feeling this guy may be innocent. I vaguely remember it in the news but don't remember details.