Man finally released after McHenry murder conviction overturned 3 times Kenneth Smith, 45, puts his arm around attorney David Jimenez-Ekman after walking out of Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner on Thursday. A federal appeals court last week affirmed Smith s exoneration, but McHenry County police and prosecutors still believe he is guilty of murder. Corryn Brock for Shaw Media Kenneth Smith, 45, walks out of Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner on Thursday with members of the law firm Jenner & Block of Chicago, who helped secure his release after serving nearly 20 years for the 2001 murder of Raul Briseno. Corryn Brock for Shaw Media Raul Briseno
On April 15, Charles Palmer won his petition for a certificate of innocence from the state s highest court. Palmer, a Decatur man, had been wrongfully convicted of murder for a 1998 Macon County homicide. This has been a long time coming and I ve been fighting for so long, Palmer told Illinois Times via email. A lot of people saw my murder charge and didn t understand that I was exonerated. Palmer said people judged him harshly, even though he was exonerated more than five years ago. I am really thrilled to be able to put this behind me, he said. In awarding Palmer s certificate, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned previous decisions made by lower courts which denied him a certificate of innocence. With the decision, the court ruled that state law regarding certificates of innocence only requires exonerees to prove their innocence for offenses for which they were initially charged. Palmer was released from prison in 2016, after the Illinois Innocence Project, based at Unive
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It has been 37 years. It is as cold as a “cold case” can get, but a small group still grips the memory of Kristina Hickey, who was 15 when she was killed in 1984.
Photo courtesy uis.edu/illinoisinnocenceproject Charles Palmer, center, is escorted by Illinois Innocence Project staff to see family and supporters after his 2016 release from prison. Charles Palmer was exonerated and released in 2016 after serving 18 years of a life sentence. Now he is seeking a certificate of innocence (COI) from the state s highest court. An exoneree must have a COI in order to get compensation from the state. Palmer was exonerated after being convicted of first-degree murder in Decatur. He was released in 2016, with the help of the Illinois Innocence Project, based at University of Illinois Springfield. The project provided new DNA evidence. Palmer was convicted in 1999, largely based on speculative testimony and blood traces found on the inside mesh of his shoe. However, scrapings from the victim s fingernai