After more than 37 years following his conviction, Forbes, 63, became a free man on Nov. 20, after the protections star witness[Annice Kennebrew] admitted to lying.
The key evidence that was used to implicate Forbes was witness testimony from Annice Kennebrew. The witness said that she had seen three men, including Forbes, burn down the apartment building in Jackson.
In 2017, Kennebrew admitted that she fabricated her story. She said that she never saw Forbes at the scene of the fire.
She testified “that she had falsely implicated Mr. Forbes because she had been intimated into doing so by two local men who knew her from around the neighborhood and who had threatened to harm her and her family if she did not implicate Mr. Forbes.”
According to court documents filed by Jackson County Circuit Court, evidence surfaced that the fire was apart of an insurance fraud scheme cooked-up by the apartment buildings owner.
As for the alleged insurance fraud scheme, the apartment building’s owner, David Jones, was convicted in a separate arson conspiracy scheme in 1990 after a man died in the Michigan fire.
