Lansing — A 74-year-old New York resident who was in danger of being deported based on a 50-year-old second-degree murder conviction was among six individuals who were granted clemency by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just before the Fourth of July holiday.
Deda Malota Margilaj, an Albanian refugee who arrived in the U.S. alone in 1970, shot and killed a man at a Detroit gas station at the age of 23 in 1975, according to the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, which represented Margilaj. The organization said the shooting was in defense of his brother, who had been shot by the same man.
Margilaj was convicted in 1978 of second-degree murder and served four and a half years before his early release in 1982 and his discharge from parole in 1984.
Margilaj moved to New York and has had a clean record since, according to the Perlmutter Center, which says on its website it focuses on curtailing “harsh” sentences. But the 50-year-old conviction landed him in removal proceedings in 2024, at which point family, community members and friends petitioned Whitmer to pardon Margilaj.
Whitmer’s office on Tuesday confirmed she granted the pardon, but did not offer further comment. Michigan’s parole board was scheduled to hold a public hearing on Margilaj’s request in April.
“Now more than ever, this case demonstrates the power of executive clemency to correct the lifelong collateral consequences of decades-old convictions,” said Joshua Dubin, executive director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice, in a statement.
The pardon, the center said, erases Margilaj’s conviction and allows for the termination of removal proceedings.
Margilaj, the center said, worked as a union superintendent in New York City for 20 years before opening Noshi’s Coney Island restaurants in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz in retirement. He has five children with his wife of 49 years.
“All I ever wanted was to stay with my family in the country I love,” Margilaj said in a statement. “Now, thanks to Gov. Whitmer, for the first time in decades, I am not afraid.”
Others who received pardons on July 2 include Jamor James, 44, who was sentenced for armed robbery in Kalamazoo County in 2002; Jamil Lewis, 52, who was sentenced for armed robbery in 1991 in Wayne County; and Amari Seals, 45, who was sentenced on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder in 1998 in Muskegon County.
Whitmer’s office also issued two commutations for individuals who “demonstrated model prisoner behavior.” While a pardon erases the underlying conviction, a commutation acknowledges the underlying conviction but shortens or eliminates the prison sentence.
The individuals whom Whitmer granted commutations on July 2 are Barbara Davis, 44, who was sentenced to life for felony murder in 2002 in Wayne County; and Demel Dukes, 47, who was also sentenced to life for felony murder in 2002 in Wayne County in a separate case.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Refugee with murder conviction among six granted clemency by Whitmer
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
