Illinois Wrongful Conviction Tab Tops $100 Million

A $4 million settlement of a civil rights case brought by a woman from whom Cook County deputy sheriffs coerced a false confession 30 years ago has driven the total tab for Illinois wrongful conviction verdicts and settlements past the $100 million mark.

The Cook County Board unanimously approved the $4 million settlement yesterday for Paula Gray, who was 17 in 1978 when she was grilled overnight in two motels until she implicated herself and four young men in a horrific kidnapping, rape, and double murder they did not commit.

Gray soon recanted her confession and was charged with perjury in addition to the murders of Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal. Two of the men Gray falsely implicated, Dennis Williams and Verneal Jimerson, were sentenced to death. The other two, Willie Rainge and Kenneth Adams, were sentenced to long prison terms. Gray was sentenced to 50 years.

All five defendants were exonerated by DNA testing in 1996, and suits filed by the four men were settled for $36 million -- the largest civil rights settlement for wrongful convictions in U.S. history.

All five defendants were African-American. The victims were white, and the convictions were rendered by all-white juries.

The largest award to an individual for a wrongful conviction in Illinois was $15 million to James Newsome, an African-American man framed by Chicago police for the murder of a white grocer in 1979.

Among other significant Illinois payments were $9 million to Lafonso Rollins, a innocent African-American youth framed by Chicago police in the rapes of elderly white women; $6.4 million to four African-American youths who falsely confessed to the murder of Lori Roscetti, a white medical student in Chicago; and $19.8 million to four African-American men who, under torture by white Chicago police officers, confessed to murders they did not commit.

In all, total Illinois civil rights settlements and jury awards since the dawning of the DNA age in 1989 now stand at $101.1 million and counting.

The only accountability has been the taxpayers' -- perhaps deservedly so, given that it is they who have tolerated, and continue to tolerate, widespread police and prosecutorial malfeasance.

None of the police and prosecutors who were actually responsible for the misconduct that led to the awards ever have paid a single cent.

Comments

[Eric8869]

This is the legacy that has got to STOP in Chicago but it just continues on and on. The police cover for each other, political state's attorneys cover their own a** instead of doing what's right, innocent people go to jail or worse, no one ever admits they were wrong. No one pays except the taxpayers.

The next time police officers cover up something (Like their buddy drunk driving and killing two young people) - the WHOLE GROUP should lose their jobs.

If the DUKE RAPE CASE had happened in Chicago - those kids would be in jail for years. There would never have been an acknowledgement of wrongdoing at all.

This is the thing that I hate the most about Chicago (and I LOVE Chicago). (Not even the inept CTA bothers me more than this corruption and abuse)

[writerjohnny]

Seriously. Prosecutors and cops need a good "win percentage" to get into the political game where the really BIG money is. The result is more innocent people convicted and more govemors and top state officials lining their pockets. And there's no good way out. Imagine a system where prosecutors are forced to prosecute other prosecutors because of prosecurial misconduct. You know, like foxes supposedly killing foxes to protect chickens. The adversarial, win/lose justice model is severely flawed much like most aspects of capitalism. Marx never predicted a date but the massive internal contradictions of the profiteering system will ultimately be it's downfall.

[1dogs2]

Were any of the police and prosecutors who were actually responsible for the misconduct that led to the awards ever prosecuted for their misconduct? Did they even lose their jobs? Or was justice so delayed that it was too late for that kind of justice?

[bnewmiller]

Police and especially prosecutors enjoy an exceptional amount of immunity for their actions. That's one of the reasons they are subject to little accountability. In the vast majority of cases where investigatory or prosecutorial abuse occurs those response never have to face any consequences. By law prosecutors are required to seek justice rather convictions, but there is no enforcement mechanism.