Denying Innocence
Prosecutors in Cook County — the nation’s leader in known wrongful convictions — have vowed to investigate innocence claims and fix injustices through the Conviction Integrity Unit. But Injustice Watch found its prosecutors repeatedly overlooked strong evidence of people’s innocence, and the group has only grown smaller and weaker with time.
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Part 1
Cook County’s conviction integrity unit repeatedly denied freedom to incarcerated people who were later cleared
Despite its celebrated record of exonerating more people than any comparable unit nationwide, an Injustice Watch investigation found 21 people who were denied relief by the group before flawed evidence later led to their exonerations.
Part 2
Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent
State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations against a former Chicago police detective and his partners.
Project Contributors
Reporting by Dan Hinkel
Editing by David Kidwell & Jonah Newman
Illustrations by Veronica Martinez
Photos by Abel Uribe