Roger Carlos Ray walked out of prison after more than 33 years behind bars, freed when a long-buried Detroit Police Department file undercut the testimony that had put him away for a 1987 murder he always said he did not commit. He was 28 years old when he was arrested in 1993; he is 62 now.
Ray was convicted that year of felony murder and a firearms offense and sentenced to life in prison in connection with the killing of John Holmes, who was beaten and shot inside a Detroit apartment building on April 19, 1987, according to a 2024 opinion from the Michigan Court of Appeals. Holmes’s body was found in the building’s boiler room. The case against Ray rested heavily on Edmond Wright, a resident of the same apartment building who testified at trial and implicated Ray in Holmes’s death — even though, per that same appellate opinion, Wright’s first statement to police on April 21, 1987 never mentioned Ray at all. It was only in a later statement that Wright told investigators Ray had admitted shooting Holmes twice in the head while the two men were hauling items to a dumpster.
A File That Sat Undisclosed for Decades
Years after Ray’s conviction, a private investigator working his case obtained a Detroit Police Department miscellaneous file containing information that had never been turned over to the defense. Among the contents, as detailed in the Court of Appeals opinion, was a redacted photocopy of Wright’s own identification card — found by police inside Holmes’s apartment, with a file note stating it had been wedged between the cushions of a sofa. The discovery mattered because the opinion also notes Wright had been considered a suspect in the murder investigation and gave inconsistent accounts to investigators over time.
Attorney Peter Dee said the file contained exculpatory evidence, and attorney Tiffany Howell said the withheld information prevented Ray’s defense from effectively challenging the prosecution’s case. In October 2024, the Michigan Court of Appeals vacated the denial of Ray’s third successive motion for relief from judgment, finding grounds to examine the newly discovered evidence and whether it amounted to a violation under Brady v. Maryland, and ordered further proceedings in the trial court.
From New Trial to Dismissal
Wayne County Circuit Judge Paul John Cusick granted Ray a new trial on May 11, 2026. Ray remained incarcerated while prosecutors weighed whether to retry him. During those proceedings, Jason Mitchell testified that Wright had made statements implicating himself in Holmes’s death…