Does executive clemency have the power to drive criminal justice reform?  Please join the Exoneration Project for a conversation on this topic with former Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn, Tyrone Hood, and Karl Leonard '09.  Tara Thompson of the Exoneration Project will moderate.

Tyrone Hood was convicted of the 1993 murder of Marshall Morgan, Jr., a local college basketball star whose body was found in an abandoned car on the South Side of Chicago.  Years after his conviction, attorneys (including the Exoneration Project and Karl Leonard '09 and his firm Winston & Strawn) uncovered new evidence that pointing to Mr. Hood's innocence.  This evidence also pointed to the guilt of Marshall Morgan Jr.'s father, Marshall Morgan Sr., who had taken out a life insurance policy on his estranged son and benefitted financially from his death. Morgan Sr. was later convicted of the murder of his girlfriend, whose body was also found in an abandoned car.

In January of 2015, Governor Quinn granted Mr. Hood's request for clemency and commuted his sentence.  Weeks later, after initially refusing to grant Mr. Hood relief, the Office of the Cook County State's Attorney asked the court to vacate Mr. Hood's conviction.

Mr. Hood's case is just one recent example of the executive branch playing a greater role, through the use of executive clemency, in driving criminal justice reform at the state and federal level.  This panel will discuss clemency as a tool in individual cases and as a way of the executive branch setting the agenda for reform.  Lunch will be served.  Seating is limited.

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