Conviction In Landmark 1982 Double Murder Case Vacated

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 30, 2014 6:00PM

Alstory Simon (Image via Illinois Department of Corrections)

In a stunning announcement, a Cook County Judge granted prosecutors’ requests to vacate the conviction of Alstory Simon in a 1982 double homicide that exposed flaws in the criminal justice system and eventually led to Illinois abolishing the death penalty.

In 1999, Simon confessed to and was convicted of the murders of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard. Simon’s confession came 48 hours before Anthony Porter, who was originally convicted of the crimes, was about to be executed. George Ryan, then a staunch supporter of capital punishment, would place a moratorium on executions in Illinois less than a year later. That moratorium stayed in place until Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011.

Simon was sentenced to 37 years in prison for the crimes and was eligible for parole in 2017, but later said he only confessed because he was promised he would receive a short sentence. Attorneys for Simon maintained their client’s innocence in the murders and said Simon’s confession was coerced by private investigator Paul Ciolino and David Protess, the former head of Northwestern University’s Medill Innocence Project. (Protess retired from NU in June 2011 as the subject of ethics violations and now heads the Chicago Innocence Project.)

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez opened an investigation into Simon’s claims after the Sun-Times reported in April that Alvarez’s predecessor, Dick Devine, bowed to political pressure to free Anthony Porter. Porter, who filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city that was rejected by a jury, angrily maintained his innocence.

Authorities ordered Simon to be released from the Jacksonville Correctional Center immediately. Porter cannot be retried of the crimes because of double jeopardy laws, so we’ll never know the truth behind who murdered Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard.