Richard Palombo
Richard Palombo was 71 when he died in Michigan of complications related to COVID-19 in April 2020. We mourn deeply the death of this man but also take a moment to laud and recognize his enduring legacy, a legacy derived in part from his courageous actions of ten years earlier.
Richard Palombo was incarcerated for nearly 40 years in Lakeland Correctional Facility when, in 2010, he was granted a parole hearing that offered the possibility of early release. In the course of the hearing, Richard shared something that went beyond his own case, something astounding for all those assembled. He articulated a wider story that had never been told: Richard told the board that the other man that had been convicted with him in 1971, Richard Phillips, had had absolutely nothing to do with the crime.
According to reporting by CNN, there is no indication in prison records that anyone from the parole board or attorney general’s office acted on this new information. So, according to CNN, in 2014 “Palombo took matters into his own hands” and asked his attorney to get in touch with the Michigan Innocence Clinic in order to take his revelation to the next step. It took another three years, but in 2017 Richard Phillips was finally released after serving a 45-year sentence for a crime he did not commit, and Richard Palombo’s efforts were the catalyst. According to David Moran, the head of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, Palombo “was the game-changer.” Phillips became the longest-serving wrongly convicted man. And Richard Palombo, who shared this truth, was now forever associated with his liberation. Moran told the Associated Press that Richard “came across as very sincere, very credible… He didn’t tell us to go out and free that guy. He just said, ‘This is the truth.’” And it was.
Tragically, Richard once again made the news this year in April when he became the 25th person to die of complications related to COVID-19 while incarcerated in Michigan - a number that had risen sharply to 87 as of November 20, 2020. Richard’s death was particularly tragic because he clearly had not given up hope of being released to live beyond Lakeland’s walls, as he still had appeals pending at the time of his death. Though he sadly did not live to see the day when he could leave Lakeland himself, his actions will link him in perpetuity with another person’s deliverance.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Cecile Ramin with information from reporting by Ed White of the Associated Press and Thomas Luke of CNN.
