After spending nearly a quarter-century behind bars for a murder he says he did not commit, Shawn Whirl on Wednesday walked out of state prison a free man, the latest Cook County conviction to dissolve under claims of a coerced confession.

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One of his attorneys, Tara Thompson of the University of Chicago Exoneration Project, said his legal team would decide in the coming weeks whether to pursue a certificate of innocence or file a lawsuit.

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In his first meal on the outside, Whirl ate shrimp and lobster tails at a seafood chain restaurant with his mother and fiancee as well as his attorneys and University of Chicago law school students who helped with his appeal.

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