Exoneration Project Clinic—Significant Achievements for 2020-21
The Exoneration Project’s mission to achieve freedom for innocent men and women continued during the 2020-21 academic year. That work was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to an expansion of our efforts at securing executive clemency for the Project’s clients. However, despite the challenges associated with litigating during the pandemic—including the closure of many courts—the Project was able to achieve a number of significant victories for many of our clients. Students were directly involved in work on many of these cases.
Exonerations
In spite of the pandemic, multiple Project clients were exonerated over the past year and another was awarded a Certificate of Innocence.
Project client Keith Walker was exonerated in August of 2020 and released from prison after serving more than 25 years. Walker was tortured—including by the use of electric shocks—into falsely confessing to a murder he did not commit. In 2020, the Illinois Attorney General agreed that Walker’s conviction should be vacated and he was released from prison.
Project client Jackie Wilson was granted a new trial in 2018 on the basis of evidence that his “confession” was the product of torture. The Illinois appellate court upheld the grant of a new trial. That trial—Wilson’s third—took place in 2020. At trial, a witness who was an Assistant State’s Attorney himself, lied under oath and the prosecution immediately moved to dismiss all charges against Wilson. The State’s Attorney’s Office subsequently fired the Assistant State’s Attorney who perjured himself. A judge has ordered an investigation into the matter by a Special Prosecutor. Wilson was granted a Certificate of Innocence in December 2020.
About two dozen Project clients were exonerated after the Project introduced evidence that they were framed by former Chicago Police officer Ronald Watts, who himself would go to prison on corruption charges. All told, the Project’s work on behalf of individuals framed by Watts has led to over 100 exonerations. Many of those clients have also been awarded Certificates of Innocence.
Project client Tyrone Hood, whom the Project has represented for well over a decade, was granted a Certificate of Innocence in 2021. Hood was released from prison after his sentence was commuted by the Illinois Governor in 2015 and he was subsequently exonerated. The trial court originally denied Hood’s petition for a Certificate of Innocence and the Project appealed. The appellate court reversed and Hood was granted the Certificate.
Litigation on behalf of victims of police misconduct
The Project is working on multiple efforts aimed at bringing justice to innocent victims of systemic police misconduct. We continue to represent a host of clients who were framed by Sgt. Watts (discussed above). The Project is also working to address serious allegations of police misconduct involving members of the Mount Vernon, New York Police Department.
The Project has dozens of cases pending in state courts in jurisdictions across the country in which the Project’s client was the victim of police misconduct and other forms of official misconduct.
Similarly, over the past year, the Project has represented clients before the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission.
Other state court litigation
Over the past year, the Project has filed multiple post-conviction petitions in courts across Illinois and Indiana. The Project has successfully defeated motions by the State to dismiss post-conviction petitions in several cases. The Project has also engaged in discovery in many cases pending in State trial courts.
Following litigation, the Project secured a new trial for a client in Indiana and another client in New York. In addition, following contested litigation, the Project secured DNA testing for a client in Illinois.
The Project has also had a busy year in the appellate courts. The Project won appeals on behalf of at least six clients over the past year. We have also filed briefs in several other appeals that remain pending.
The Project also continues to investigate many other potential post-conviction cases and intends to file new post-conviction petitions in the coming year.
Juvenile sentencing issues
Over the past year, the Project has been involved in several cases regarding the unconstitutional sentencing of juvenile offenders. The Project successfully secured the release of a client who had been serving a life sentence. Similarly, following a sentencing hearing and an appeal, a Project client’s sentence was reduced from 100 years to 25 years. Another client was awarded a new sentencing hearing that we anticipate litigating in the coming months. In addition, the Project is currently engaged in litigation against the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (“PRB”) in an effort to force the PRB to begin complying with a statute regarding parole eligibility for youthful offenders.
Executive clemency
During the pandemic, the Project has greatly expanded its focus on executive clemency, i.e., pardons and sentence commutations by the Governor. The Project filed clemency petitions for many clients. Several of them were released from prison as a result. Additional petitions remain pending and the Project anticipates filing even more in the coming months.