Race Day Live Mike McKenzie, a lawyer known for helping free wrongfully convicted prisoners, was shot and killed along with his wife, Darla.
The couple, from Georgia, was visiting their daughter’s home in Alabama when the daughter’s husband, Christopher Scott Johnson, allegedly shot them. Police arrested Johnson and charged him with capital murder. He is being held without bond.
McKenzie, 72, was a respected attorney who focused on arson cases where faulty science led to wrongful convictions.
He worked closely with the Michigan Innocence Clinic and helped clear at least a dozen innocent people across the U.S. without charging any fees.
John Lentini, a fire investigator from Florida, worked with McKenzie for years. He described McKenzie as someone who always tried to fix injustices.
Michigan Innocence Clinic Co-director Imran Syed said McKenzie had been working with the clinic since 2009 and was one of the few lawyers with expertise in junk fire science cases.
Syed said McKenzie’s work was responsible for multiple exonerations, and he mentored many young lawyers.
One of McKenzie’s most well-known cases was David Gavitt’s. Gavitt was convicted in 1985 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his wife and two young daughters in Michigan.
McKenzie asked Lentini to review the Michigan State Police lab’s findings. Lentini discovered serious mistakes in the chemistry reports, proving the fire was not arson.
Thanks to McKenzie’s efforts, Gavitt was exonerated in 2012 after spending 27 years in prison.
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Gavitt said he considered McKenzie and his wife like family. He said McKenzie worked hard to prove his innocence and never doubted him.
He still wonders why a lawyer from Atlanta cared so much about a case in Michigan. “He was a special, caring person,” Gavitt said. “He could have ignored my case, but he chose to help.”
Authorities in Alabama have not revealed a motive for the killings. Friends and colleagues are mourning McKenzie and Darla, remembering them as kind and dedicated people who made a real difference in the fight for justice.
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