Chicago prosecutors to release two men wrongfully convicted of 1993 murder

This is one instance where playing the long game paid off.

 

How is that exactly?

 

Congrats DW and more importantly congrats to the defendants for persevering so long in prison knowing all along you were innocent.

Is this every case? No, but this is why I support our legal system, there is no better alternative out there, and at times, a conviction is not the end of the line, no matter how much people want finality.

No one should be afraid of scrutiny, because that's what has the best chance of bringing out the truth.

 

Nothing better than 12 random people voting for the winner of "Anerican Idol: Lawyer"? I'm not convinced of that. In many ways, this case disillusioned me about the system and whether it actually does what it is supposed to do. You guys would be appalled at how justice was served in Chicago. And I'm not only talking about corruption. But just slip shod policing techniques. I'm surprised the reports weren't in crayon. I do some death penalty work in Alabama, and everything is tight as a drum by comparison. It is laughable that the SAO and the judge believed that the evidence in this case aligned with the two informants' testimony. Then, the widow - who claimed months down the line that these guys followed her home the night before - couldn't ID them in open court. The whole trial was a shitshow.

In fairness, this was a bench trial. A New Yorker piece last year about another Chicago innocence case noted that the judge has a reputation as an easy conviction.

 

Unimpressed. Convinced they had the right guy.

 

Dick -- one of my best friends does a lot of work in Chicago in this field (I'm sure you have worked with him/run across him) and the stories that he tells are just staggering. I wonder if the law enforcement in that area is just worse than everywhere else or there has just been more aggressive lawyering.

 

This would make a great long-form story.

 

Yeah, but who do we know who's good enough to pull it off?

 

fluffer ...

 

There better be a second meaning to this term that I'm unaware of.

 

I'm pretty sure you're on the same page.

 

LOL ... I was possessed by an intelligence greater than my own when I wrote that. It had ripped me out of the tide of ignorance in which I was adrift.