DETROIT (WWJ) — A 77-year-old Detroit man who spent nearly 60 years in prison for murder has been deemed eligible for parole, thanks to a Michigan court ruling.
Ivory Thomas has been in prison since October 1965 after being convicted of first-degree felony murder for the robbery and stabbing of 18-year-old Michael Railsback in Detroit’s Dueweke Park.
Thomas, 18 at the time of conviction, is now eligible to be released following the 2022 Michigan Supreme Court decision in People v. Poole.
The Poole case held that mandatory life without parole sentences imposed on 18-year-old defendants violates the Michigan constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
This January the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled the decision could be applied retroactively to more than 250 current prisoners, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Michigan Department of Corrections records show that Thomas — the oldest Poole case to be taken up by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office — has undergone “positive transformation while in prison,” the prosecutor’s office said.