Detroit: Judge Rules That Vincent Smothers’ Confession Won’t Clear Davontae Sanford

 
No, not these dangerous Smothers Brothers! 

I mean this Smothers brother! 
[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Smothers Brother Gets Sentenced to an Average of Only 6.25-12.5 Years for Eight Contract Killings—but It’s Detroit.”]

* * *Judge: Vincent Smothers' confession won't clear Davontae Sanford
Feb 28, 2012, 7:19 p.m.
By Brandie Piper, KSDK, and Ed White, Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - A judge is refusing to let a young Detroit man withdraw his guilty plea to four slayings despite a confession from a hit man who's in prison for eight other murders.

The Tuesday decision is a major blow to Davontae Sanford, who says he admitted to the fatal shootings at age 14 to please police. He subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder but has been fighting for more than three years to have the plea thrown out.

There's no dispute that admitted hit man Vincent Smothers told police he committed the 2007 Runyon Street homicides. But Wayne County Judge Brian Sullivan says Smothers' confession doesn't mean Sanford should be exonerated.
Smothers is willing to testify for Sanford, but the judge says no. Smothers [sic] now is 19.

[N.S.: Vincent Smothers is 31; Davontae Sanford is 19.

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