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Former Prisoners Ask for "Innocence Certificates" -- Henry County Woman Included
Four former Illinois prisoners, all exonerated of their crimes, are asking the courts for "certificates of innocence" under a new law.

These are the first to apply under the law that went into effect last month with an override of the governor's veto. It allows innocent former prisoners to ask the court to issue a "certificate of innocence," a new concept, rather than asking the governor for a pardon. Karen Daniel, senior staff attorney with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, says the governor has been slow to grant pardons, delaying these claimants the opportunity to get compensation.

She says these petitions will be handled faster, because they will mostly be heard by the same judge who presided over the proceeding that led to the exoneration, so they are already familiar with the case "and are poised to act instantly," Daniel says.

State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago), the chief sponsor of the measure, says the certificate of innocence also will help the former prisoners in real life, by giving them something to show prospective employers, for example, to explain that they were in prison but that they were innocent of the crime that put them there.

The law also raises the compensation level for wrongfully convicted inmates:

Five years or less from $60,150 to $85,350

Five to 14 years $144,849 to $170,000

Over 14 years from $161,006 to $199,150

The four individuals who are filing for the certificates of innocence:

* Marcus Lyons ( DuPage County ), convicted of sexual assault in 1988, imprisoned 1988-91, exonerated by DNA evidence in 2007.

* Marlon Pendleton ( Cook County ), convicted of sexual assault in 1993, imprisoned 1993-2006, exonerated by DNA evidence in 2006

* Tabitha Pollock (Henry County), convicted of murder in 1995, imprisoned 1995-2002, Illinois Supreme Court overturned conviction in 2002, saying she was asleep at the time of the crime and had no knowledge or intent.

* Robert Wilson ( Cook County ), convicted of slashing a woman's throat at a bus stop in 1997, imprisoned 1997-2006. Conviction was overturned because evidence regarding an alternative suspect was excluded from trial; victim repudiated her identification in 2006.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
10 16 08 by Newsroom
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