MI Supreme Ct takes fight out of Swain

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - When the Michigan Supreme Court voted 4-3 to not hear an appeal from Lorinda Swain, her freedom remains up in the air. And in an interview with 24 Hour News 8, she made it clear she does not want to go back to prison.

Asked if she has any fight left in her, Swain said, "Not a lot, to be honest."

She added, "But it if I go back to the prison cell, I'm done fighting. I'll go to a segregation cell and I won't eat. And I'll be out of my misery."

On May 3, the Calhoun County prosecutor's office asked to reinstate Swain's conviction and send her back to prison. A motion on this hearing is set for May 16.

Her conviction on charges she sexually molested her son placed her in prison for years, but was released in August 2009 after Judge Conrad Sindt became convinced she deserved a new trial.

The main witness against her - her son, Ronnie - recanted his testimony almost immediately after the conviction. Other witnesses who could speak to her innocence were not brought forth at that trial, and Sindt ordered her released pending a new trial.

But Calhoun County prosecutors appealed that decision, and an appeals court ruled Swain should not get a new trial and should be returned to prison.

The Michigan Innocence Project, on Swain's behalf, said this does not exhaust her hope for a new trial. The organization plans to take the issue back to Judge Sindt and ask him to rule on issues not previously decided - among them, that her lawyer was ineffective and did not exhaust her appeals on the first case, and that her son recanted his testimony.

It will be up to Judge Sindt to determine if she remains free pending his decision.

"I don't know how long it takes to starve yourself to death but I've tried to tell my parents they need top get on with their lives," she told 24 Hour News 8. "I know that my death, if that's what comes, will devastate them, and hopefully it won't come to that because Judge Sindt knows I am innocent.

"And I am innocent."

She knows that there is the possibility of a federal appeal or a commutation or pardon from the governor.

"But that's a couple years down the road. Do I plan to hang in there and fight for that? No, absolutely not.

"It's been a nightmare that wouldn't end, and there's been hope along the way, and like I said, I'm still not in the prison cell."