By: Norman Dotson Jr./BNC Digital

A Michigan man has filed a suit against a car rental company, Hertz, for its failure to produce a receipt in a timely fashion that would have prevented his murder conviction in 2011.

Herbert Alford was convicted of second-degree murder in 2016 in the shooting death of Michael Adams, which occurred when Alford was renting a car at a Lansing-area airport more than 20 minutes away from the shooting.

“There is no question that (Alford) would have avoided going to prison had they produced this documentation,” attorney Jamie White said in a separate interview.

Hertz released a statement that it was saddened that they could not locate the receipt when requested in 2015, saying that the company continued its “good faith efforts” to locate the rental record.

“With advances in data search in the years following, we were able to locate the rental record in 2018 and promptly provided it,” the company said.

Alford is seeking financial compensation; however, delays are expected as Hertz is facing a company bankruptcy reorganization.

In a report from the Associated Press, Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2020.

“Sales growth went into negative territory almost immediately, but the 100-year-old company was already experiencing some turmoil” the report read.

Alford had his conviction thrown out and charges dropped in 2020 after serving five years in prison.