Biography
James Henderson was one of the "Livernois 5," five young Black men swept up in a Detroit police dragnet after the July 1975 Livernois–Fenkell rebellion and charged in the death of Marian Pyszko, a white autoworker killed by a crowd during the unrest. The uprising had erupted when Andrew Chinarian, the white owner of Bolton's Bar on Livernois Avenue, shot 18-year-old Obie Wynn in the back of the head in his parking lot — a killing for which Chinarian ultimately served only six months on a misdemeanor charge of careless use of a firearm. As the city demanded answers for Pyszko's death, police rounded up young Black men who could be tied to the area; the five defendants were held for about eleven months and tried three times before all of them were acquitted and released.
The LivernoisFive report individually names this defendant among three adults held after the November13 hung jury and awaiting retrial scheduled January21. It alleges coerced witness statements, temporary motel confinement of unnamed witnesses and police framing. A December27 demonstration demanded release of these three and two unnamed juveniles. Continued January1976 custody is an observation, not a precise discharge date or proof that a year-only January1 placeholder is an actual release. Later acquittal evidence remains intact.
Livernois Five Freed reports the June 18, 1976 jury acquittals of Raymond Peoples, James Henderson and Ronald Jordan after two hung-jury trials and eleven months without bail. It says the five defendants were finally free, while distinguishing earlier dropped charges against juveniles George Young and Douglas Lane. Coercion of prosecution witnesses is reported and attributed to their testimony. The dated jury outcome does not independently establish an exact physical gate-release day; the existing eleven-month actual-service evidence is preserved.
