This story is a collaboration between Injustice Watch and Bolts, a nonprofit publication that covers criminal justice and voting rights in local governments.
Illinois lawmakers and courts have moved to make certificates of innocence both more valuable and easier to get for some exonerated people.
In late May, the First District Illinois Appellate Court ruled in a Cook County case that some wrongfully convicted people should automatically get these certificates — court orders that come with state compensation and the right to expunge case records that can make it tough to find housing and work.
The ruling clashes with the efforts of Cook County prosecutors under State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke. A recent Injustice Watch and Bolts investigation found Burke had opposed nearly every petition for a certificate of innocence since her term started in late 2024, reversing the office’s approach under former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
And just days after the appellate ruling, legislators in Springfield voted to significantly boost the per-year state compensation for people who receive certificates of innocence. Illinois has lagged well behind other states, paying out about $15,500 per year of incarceration, on average, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Total compensation is currently capped at just under $300,000, even for people who spent three or four decades in prison. If signed into law, the legislation passed June 1 would increase the payout to up to $50,000 per year in prison and $25,000 per year on probation or parole, with no cap on total compensation.
A spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker declined to say whether he plans to sign the bill. But Senate sponsor Elgie R. Sims Jr., D-Chicago, said he was “cautiously optimistic” the bill will become law, and he credited exonerated people and the Springfield-based Illinois Innocence Project for their years of lobbying for the increase.
“It meant a great deal to have exonerees come and share their stories and share the impacts that this has had on their lives and the lives of their loved ones,” he said.
Johnnie Savory — who was 14 years old when he was arrested for murder in Peoria and spent 30 years locked up before his release from prison in 2006 — was among the exonerated people who lobbied legislators for the bigger payments. Savory, who now lives in Chicago, received a pardon in 2015, but he’s still battling to get a certificate of innocence. He said the boost is badly needed to help people who typically leave prison with little money, bleak job prospects, and debilitating trauma.
This story is part of “Denying Innocence,” our series on the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office’s approach to innocence claims.
“You need a place to live. You need food to eat. You need a future for your children,” he said. “It helps you get through these rough times.
Days before the bill passed, a three-judge appellate court panel ruled on the case of Frank Drew, who was arrested for an Evanston murder in 1998 and spent 24 years in prison. He alleged officers beat him into confessing, and he was exonerated in 2024 following the recantations of key witnesses. Cook County Circuit Judge Anjana Hansen denied him a certificate of innocence last year, and his attorneys appealed.
The ruling clarifies one of the two ways the certificates are granted under Illinois law. One way involves exonerated people convincing a judge it is more likely than not that they’re innocent. The appellate court clarified the second route, finding judges must automatically grant certificates to Drew and other people who previously claimed innocence at post-conviction hearings based on newly discovered evidence and won new trials before prosecutors dropped the charges.
The appeals court disagreed with Cook County prosecutors, who argued the law only automatically granted certificates to people if a judge had previously pronounced them actually innocent — rather than simply overturning their convictions.
Josh Tepfer, executive director of the Exoneration Project and one of Drew’s lawyers, said judges generally don’t do that, and the appellate court was right to reject that requirement.
“I have never seen it happen,” he said. “This is a clearly correct result.”
It’s unclear exactly how many exonerated people might clear the bar set by the ruling. But, within days, attorneys from the Exoneration Project filed motions in court in two other cases arguing the ruling showed their clients were immediately owed certificates of innocence. Prosecutors had not responded to those motions as of early June.
Burke’s office could still seek to have the appellate ruling overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. A spokesperson for Burke declined to comment on the case, noting it is still pending.
Burke has declined repeated requests for interviews with Injustice Watch and Bolts, but she has said publicly that the certificates should go to people with “concrete, irrefutable evidence” of their innocence. Her prosecutors have argued in court that guilty people seek them to gain an unfair advantage in civil rights lawsuits against police.
In an interview, Drew said he’s frustrated that prosecutors seem to get endless opportunities to accuse him of the crime, even after dropping the charges. He wants the case off his record because he’s afraid of police pulling him over and seeing the murder conviction.
He got locked up at 18 years old and lost the chance to have the life he wanted. He said he just wants prosecutors to admit they were wrong.
“At 46, I have no children. You took that from me, man. You fucking took that from me,” he said through tears.
“It’s not fair,” he added. “It cost me 25 years out of my life.”
Read More
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Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent
Cook County’s conviction integrity unit repeatedly denied freedom to incarcerated people who were later cleared
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