Armed robbers stole $45 from a confectionary in Detroit, Michigan, on January 19, 1946. Several men were arrested for their suspected involvement in the crime, including Daniel Bousha and Jack Briggs. Eyewitness Larry Russell identified Ronald J. Logan as the driver of the getaway car. Logan was convicted of the robbery, and, on May 23, 1946, he was sentenced to life in prison for this crime. Logan maintained his innocence, engaging in a hunger strike to obtain the chance to sit for a polygraph examination. A polygraph test was administered and indicated Logan was answering truthfully when he said he was not involved in the robbery. Additional investigation was made into the circumstances of the crime, and, in October 1959, Larry Russell testified at a hearing that Logan had not been the driver in the 1946 robbery. Russell stated he had fabricated the story that Logan was involved in the crime because he and Logan had been quarreling over a girlfriend at that time. The other two men who had been convicted in the 1946 robbery, Bousha and Briggs, also testified that Logan was not involved in the crime. On the basis of this new testimony and Logan's polygraph test results, Logan was granted a new trial in October 1959. Rather than retrying Logan, Judge W. McKay Skillman ordered Logan’s release on a motion by Assistant Prosecutor Samuel Brezner on October 30, 1959. In October 1978, Logan was granted $25,000 as compensation for his 13½ years of wrongful imprisonment, pursuant to an appropriations bill passed by the state legislature of Michigan. – Meghan Barrett Cousino
|