Injustice Watch (https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/)
Marilyn Mulero pleaded guilty 26 years ago to a gang-retaliation murder and for years was under a death sentence. But on Wednesday the Illinois Prisoner Review Board considered whether to recommend that Gov. J.B. Pritzker grant Mulero clemency, based on mounting doubts about the conviction. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office argues to leave the conviction intact.
Attorneys for Rodney Reed, a Texas inmate slated for execution next month, have asked Governor Greg Abbott for a 30-day reprieve from execution citing new evidence and “grave doubt concerning his guilt.”
In their new study, Injustice Watch co-founder Rob Warden and reporter John Seasly have identified a troubling category of cases: Defendants sentenced to die who have not been exonerated despite significant evidence of their innocence.
An Illinois transgender woman said in a motion this month that mistreatment she experienced at several male prison facilities due to her gender identity has continued, despite her transfer in April to a women’s prison.
At least 25 Illinois Department of Corrections employees have taken part in online conversations that mocked, demeaned, or disclosed personal and medical information about transgender inmates in two private Facebook groups, an Injustice Watch review has found.
A man convicted of drug dealing won a new trial in Philadelphia because of a Facebook post by the arresting officer. The case is believed to be the first criminal conviction overturned because of a post included in the Plain View Project database.
The results of the DNA testing led a judge to overturn the convictions of Brian Dement’s three associates. Even though the physical evidence points to another man as the killer, so far the West Virginia judge has refused to grant a new trial for Dement, citing the fact that Dement confessed and entered a guilty plea.
Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans won a historic seventh term overseeing the county’s courts. He was facing a challenger who sought to harness the unhappiness of Cook County judges of the criticisms that led to the unseating last year of the first sitting judge since 1990.
The number of defendants seeking review of their claims that they were tortured into confessing now numbers more than 500. Absent more resources to review the cases, It could be decades before those claims are resolved.
Philadelphia officials concluded that the Facebook posts of 191 active police officers violated department regulations after an internal affairs investigation, the city’s acting police commissioner told City Council members Tuesday. City officials, residents and activists called on the department to do more to change the culture within the Philadelphia Police Department.
When a witness failed to appear for a pretrial hearing in a murder case, the judge ordered her held without bail. And when the appellate court found that unreasonable, the judge set a new bail beyond her means to pay. The appellate court reversed again, but the experience cost the woman, 20, two weeks in Cook County jail.