95.3 / 88.5 FM Grand Rapids and 95.3 FM Muskegon
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New DNA testing points to different killer in 1981 slaying

Handcuffs photo
U.S. Air Force | Public Domain via Wikimedia
/
Wikimedia.org

Officials say new DNA testing points to a different killer in a 1981 slaying for which a Michigan man is serving a life sentence.

The Detroit Free Press reports Ingham County Circuit Court set a Sept. 23 hearing to consider new evidence that could overturn the conviction of 53-year-old Michael Darnell Harris in the slaying of 77-year-old Ula Curdy of Lansing.

Harris is serving life sentences for killing Curdy as well as three other women in 1981 and 1982 in Lansing, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

He's long said he's innocent.

Interim Ingham Prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer says freedom for Harris anytime soon appears unlikely, given his record.

Harris' court-appointed lawyer Edwar Zeineh says other convictions from what was seen as the work of a serial killer and rapist could fall.

Related Content