Thaddeus Jimenez Conviction is Vacated After 16 Years of Custody. Jimenez Was 13 When He Was Arrested
The Chicago Tribune is reporting:
"A man who was 13 when arrested in 1993 and convicted of murder has been freed because Cook County prosecutors now believe another man committed the slaying. State's Atty. Anita Alvarez didn't say what evidence prompted her office to push for a judge to vacate Thaddeus Jimenez's 50-year prison sentence on Friday, but said it was the right decision. "I'm happy to be alive today," Jimenez, now 30, said at a press conference at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, "after spending a little over 16 years in the Department of Corrections."
Prosecutors have charged a Hammond, Ind., man with the Feb. 3, 1993 murder of Eric Morro. Juan Carlos Torres, 30, is awaiting extradition to Illinois and was mentioned as a potential suspect at the time of the shooting, authorities said. Witnesses had told police they saw Jimenez fire the fatal shot. A man with Morro initially told police Jimenez was not the gunman, but after a lengthy interrogation, changed his story and pointed the finger at Jimenez, authorities said. The case came to the attention of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions in 2005. The center conducted an investigation and, in September 2007, sent its findings to the state's attorney's office. The office launched its own review and, along with Jimenez's attorneys, asked a judge on Friday to vacate Jimenez's sentence. The judge agreed. The decision to drop the case was "a powerful example of a prosecutor's office living up to the highest ideals of what a prosecutor should be," said Steven Drizin, one of Jimenez's attorneys and a law professor at Northwestern. Jimenez "would still be locked up today if not for the Cook County state's attorney's office."
Alvarez said her office found no evidence of official misconduct in the original investigation against Jimenez. "This is a situation where we don't see any police misconduct or prosecutorial misconduct," she said, noting the evidence initially appeared to point to Jimenez. She said the case is an example of why there needs to be continued training of police and prosecutors on how to interrogate witnesses and verify witness accounts. During a brief statement Jimenez thanked his lawyers and his mother, saying that because she didn't give up hope, he had the strength to persevere."I survived because of the love and support I received from my mother, who battled cancer and other illnesses while I was away," he said."
You can also read Maurice Possley's article in Chicago Sun-Times
The Center on Wrongful Convictionsat Northwestern University has published a video on Thaddeus Jimenez's release.
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Blagojevich declared the problem had been eliminated. In 2005, the year Blagojevich proclaimed the DNA backlog gone, it included at least 170 cases. And today, 1,167 cases are taking more than a month to analyze, with nearly half of the DNA samples from rape kits, according to a Tribune review of lab statistics. Sexual assault victims and law-enforcement officials say it can take as long as a year for DNA to be analyzed at the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, the third-largest forensic laboratory in the world.
Convinced the workload at the lab appeared under control, a non-profit group that had formed to address the problem disbanded. The group, begun four years earlier, raised private funds to help pay for the testing of hundreds of rape kits that sat untested in storage at the Chicago Police Department. With that task completed, the Women's DNA Initiative saw no need to continue, said Sheri Mecklenburg, who launched the effort when she served as general counsel to the Chicago police superintendent. "We assumed they could keep up with the current caseload," she said. The General Assembly, which appropriates money to the state crime lab and other state agencies, was also in the dark, said state Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs). "We were lied to," said Durkin, who sponsored legislation in 2007 calling for the audit of the state crime lab. "To know how to handle this, it's extremely important that they act in a transparent way."