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Inmates Hope Recanted Testimony Will Free Them DETROIT (Michigan Radio) - Deshawn and Marvin Reed were convicted in 2001 of shooting Shannon Gholston. All three men lived in the same neighborhood in Ecorse.

The shooting left Gholston paralyzed. At trial, Gholston said he saw Deshawn Reed shoot him from a car driven by his uncle Marvin.

During a hearing last month, Gholston recanted that claim.

"At the time of the shooting I believed I saw them," he said, "but I've had a long time to think about it, and I've been thinking, and I can't say for sure."

Students and attorneys with the Innocence Clinic at U of M are hoping Gholston's recantation and other information will convince Judge Patricia Fresard to grant the Reeds a new trial.

But family members say Shannon Gholston is only changing his story to protect them from the Reeds' family and friends.

Sherrie Gholston-Truitt is Gholston's sister. She testified that her family has been persistently harassed by Deshawn Reed's brother ever since the conviction.

"Calling my father names, telling what they'll do to him, what they'll do to Shannon - I know where you live, I know where you be," she said. "Shannon would just lay there and cry, because, you know, what can he do? He's paralyzed, he's just laying there on his back after someone shot him."

Vanessa Isom-Jackson is another sister of Shannon's. She says her brother is trying to help the Reeds get out of prison to stop the harassment.

"He told me that he had made an agreement that they was gonna leave us alone," Isom-Jackson said. "All of this was gonna go away."

Both DeShawn Reed and his brother deny that there's been any harassment, or any deal.

David Moran is co-director of the Innocence Clinic. He says the Gholston family is hanging onto false beliefs about what happened nine years ago.

"When you believe that someone has committed a terrible crime against you and your family, it's very difficult to let go, and so I don't fault the Gholstons at all," he said. "But it's very difficult for them to hear from their son that the wrong people are in prison."

Moran and the law students working on the case say the Reeds' attorneys botched their appeal. They say that - coupled with Gholston's recantation - should convince Judge Patricia Fresard to grant a new trial.

If that doesn't happen, Deshawn and Marvin Reed will remain in prison for at least the next dozen years.

To hear more about the Reeds' case, click here.

Contact Sarah Hulett at sarahhu@umich.edu © Copyright 2012, Michigan Radio