Results tagged “wrongfulconviction”

In 1989 Juan Johnson, then 19, was arrested for murdering a rival gang member with a two-by-four outside a nightclub in Humboldt Park. He was later convicted and sentenced to a 30-year prison term and served eleven and a half years before he was acquitted in 2004. On Monday, Johnson was awarded $21 million in compensatory damages which is the largest award for wrongful conviction in Chicago history according to Chicago Breaking News.

Madison Hobley, who once sat on death row, is now allowed to collect $6.5 million stemming from a wrongful-conviction lawsuit he won against the city. Hobley was originally convicted of setting the 1987 fire that killed seven people, including his wife and son. He served 13 years in prison before Gov. George Ryan pardoned him in 2003. An extra layer of intrigue to the situation comes from the fact that Hobley's main defense was that former Police Commander Jon Burge tortured Hobley into confessing.

Cathleen Crowell Webb, who shocked Chicago in 1977 by charging that Gary Dotson had kidnapped and raped her, died of cancer in New Hampshire yesterday. Crowell Webb, then a 16 year old student at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, alleged that Dotson had kidnapped and sexually assaulted her on July 15.