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Court: No relief for inmate who won major case over sentence

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succo via Pixabay | CC BY 2.0
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Pixabay.com

The Michigan appeals court has declined to release a prisoner who won a major case over a governor's power to reduce sentences.

The court last week said the state parole board still controls the freedom of Matthew Makowski.

In 2010, Gov. Jennifer Granholm changed Makowski's no-parole sentence, making him eligible for release, but she changed her decision a few days later.

The state Supreme Court said Granholm's switch was illegal. But Makowski remains behind bars.

The parole board still hasn't released him, although Makowski's lawyers have noted that prisoners whose sentences have been commuted are routinely sent home.

Makowski was convicted of arranging a robbery that turned into the fatal stabbing of a co-worker in Dearborn in 1988.

He wasn't present when the victim was killed.

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