71-year-old Richard Phillips, a Detroit-area man whose murder conviction was thrown out after he spent 45 years in prison, was exonerated Wednesday and won’t face a second trial. A judge granted a request to permanently drop the case against Phillips, whose conviction was erased last year. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting. She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial. The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the ’72 trial told the state parole board that Phillips wasn’t involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris. Phillips had been free on bond since December. He likely will be eligible for more than $2 million under Michigan’s wrongful conviction law. Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison that “I’ve never carried bitterness around, so I’m not a bitter man.”
