Christopher Abernathy was only 17 in 1984 when 15-year-old Kristina Hickey, a high school student and girl he knew, was brutally assaulted and murdered in Park Forest, Ill. (Cook County). The crime shocked and terrified residents of this small suburban community south of Chicago, and went unsolved for more than a year.
Angel Gonzalez was proven innocent by DNA testing and released from prison in March 2015 – after serving nearly 21 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
His nightmare began on July 10, 1994, when a woman in Waukegan, Ill., was forced out of her apartment building into a waiting car by two men who drove her several blocks away and violently raped her.
Teshome Campbell walked out of prison a free man on January 29, 2016, after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned 18 years for a murder he did not commit.
The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) is very pleased to announce that our client Charles Palmer was exonerated and freed on Wednesday November 23, 2016, after 18 years of incarceration for a murder that DNA proved he did not commit. The case involved the 1998 murder of a man in Decatur IL. The victim had expired with an unknown person’s tissue under his fingernails, and another person’s hair in his hand, both of which went untested prior to trial. DNA testing of these items was litigated successfully by the Illinois Innocence Project, over the State’s objection.
William “Bill” Amor walked out of prison on Tuesday, May 30, 2017, after 22 years of incarceration as an innocent man.
On January 14, 2019 — 23 years after his death in prison — Grover Thompson was granted executive clemency based on actual innocence by outgoing Illinois Gov.
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The flags on the University of Illinois Springfield quad tell the story: almost three thousand of them, each representing a wrongful conviction. They’re black, except for the 359 blue ones, representing those in Illinois.
Christine Ferree, program director of case evaluation of the Illinois Innocence Project, says she is not trying to help criminals get off the hook.
We are pleased that you have chosen to explore our graduate degree and certificate programs. More than 40% of UIS students are engaged in graduate study, and most were attracted to UIS by an impressive combination of factors that include educational quality, value and campus location and setting.
The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) at the University of Illinois Springfield is pleased to announce its client Jennifer McMullan has been released after more than 19 years of wrongful imprisonment for a murder she did not commit. At a court hearing on Wednesday, June 16,at the McHenry County Courthouse, the State vacated McMullan’s murder conviction and sentence, and presented a plea agreement that would release McMullan that day with her sentence considered “time served.”