Walter Swift

DETROIT — When Walter Swift walked out of state prison after serving 26 years on a false charge, he forgot what freedom felt like. Swift said he was “terrified” to face a world he had not seen in nearly three decades because most of his adult life was spent behind bars. Due to an untrained public defender and a hurried investigation, Swift was convicted of a rape he didn’t commit in 1982.

Swift’s story exemplifies the problems with Michigan’s underfunded and strained public defense system, which has deteriorated to such a poor condition where a study by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association done in cooperation with the State Bar Association of Michigan called it a “constitutional crisis.”