GOVERNOR WHITMER: GRANT MAURICE CARTER A POSTHUMOUS PARDON

Maurice Carter lost nearly 29 years of his life to a wrongful conviction. Although he was finally released from prison in 2004, he died just three months later without ever seeing his name cleared.

Humanity for Prisoners is asking Governor Gretchen Whitmer to grant Maurice a posthumous pardon before her term ends in 2026.

A pardon cannot return the years Maurice lost. But it can finally acknowledge the injustice done to him and provide the vindication he was denied during his lifetime.

29 YEARS FOR A CRIME HE DID NOT COMMIT

Maurice was convicted of shooting an off-duty police officer in Benton Harbor, Michigan. From the beginning, he maintained his innocence.

The case against him was deeply flawed. A man who implicated Maurice later recanted. The victims did not identify Maurice until after his arrest and after his photograph had appeared in the newspaper. Prosecutors relied on witnesses who were offered incentives, while an eyewitness with nothing to gain testified that Maurice was not the shooter. Maurice also received inadequate legal representation and was convicted by an all-white jury.

At one point, Maurice was told he could go home if he confessed. He refused.

“I would never confess to something I didn’t do.”

Maurice never stopped fighting for the truth.

A FRIENDSHIP THAT BECAME A MOVEMENT

Doug Tjapkes met Maurice in the mid-1990s after learning about a man in a Michigan prison who insisted he had been wrongfully convicted.

A former broadcast journalist, Doug began looking into Maurice’s case. The more he learned, the more convinced he became that Maurice was telling the truth.

What followed was a nine-year effort to bring Maurice home. Through prison visits, investigation, advocacy, disappointment, and hope, Maurice and Doug became much more than an incarcerated man and his advocate. They became best friends—brothers united by their faith and their determination to see justice done.

Maurice’s sentence was eventually commuted because he was gravely ill. On July 24, 2004, after nearly three decades in prison, he walked to freedom with Doug by his side.

Three months later, Maurice died. He was free, but he had not been exonerated.

MAURICE’S VISION LIVES ON

While he was still incarcerated, Maurice helped Doug imagine an organization that would stand beside people in prison who felt forgotten and alone. That vision became the organization first known as INNOCENT! and now known as Humanity for Prisoners.

Maurice was not simply HFP’s first client or the inspiration behind its founding. He was its co-founder. His faith, compassion, and firsthand understanding of life behind prison walls helped shape the organization and the work it continues today.

Maurice believed this work should reach beyond people who had been wrongfully convicted. He believed every incarcerated person deserved to be treated with dignity and reminded that their life still mattered.

That belief remains at the heart of Humanity for Prisoners.

Every request we answer, every connection we help restore, and every person we remind of their worth carries Maurice’s vision forward.

HELP US FINISH WHAT MAURICE STARTED

Maurice lived to see the outside of a prison again, but he did not live to see his name cleared.

On June 26, 2026, the Humanity for Prisoners Board of Directors unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Governor Whitmer to grant Maurice a posthumous pardon.

We invite you to stand with us.

Ask Governor Whitmer to formally acknowledge the injustice Maurice endured and grant him the posthumous pardon he has long deserved.