A 13 year old boy was arrested in 1993 and convicted of cold blooded murder. The sentence was 50 years. He is now free after 16 years in prison because prosecutors now believe another man committed the killing!
State's Attorney Anita Alvarez couldn't say what evidence prompted her office to encourage a judge to vacate Thaddeus Jimenez's prison sentence on Friday, but mentioned that she believed it was the correct decision.
"I'm happy to be alive today," Thaddeus Jimenez, now 30, told everyone at a press conference at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse, "after spending a little over 16 years in the Department of Corrections."
Authorities have now charged a Hammond, Indiana, man with the Feb. 3, 1993 murder of Eric Morro. This man, Juan Carlos Torres, is awaiting extradition to Illinois. He is now 30 years old. Oddly enough, Juan Carlos Torres was mentioned as a potential suspect at the time of the shooting.
Witnesses mistakenly had told police they were sure they saw Thaddeus Jimenez fire the shot. A man with Eric Morro at the time of the tragedy had told police Thaddeus Jimenez was not the gunman. After an extended interrogation, the witness then changed his story and implicated Thaddeus Jimenez with the slaying.
The case came to the attention of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions in 2005. The center supervised an investigation and, in September 2007, it sent its conclusions to the state's attorney's office.
The office originated its own analysis and, coupled with Jimenez's attorneys, they petitioned a judge on Friday to vacate Jimenez's sentence. The judge concurred.
The outcome to drop the case was "...a powerful example of a prosecutor's office living up to the highest ideals of what a prosecutor should be," said Steven Drizin, one of Jimenez's attorneys. Thaddeus Jimenez "would still be locked up today if not for the Cook County state's attorney's office."
The state's attorney said her office found no evidence of official misconduct in the initial investigation against Thaddeus Jimenez.
"This is a situation where we don't see any police misconduct or prosecutorial misconduct," she said, pointing out that the evidence originally appeared to incriminate Jimenez.
She did accede that the case is an exemplification of why there needs to be constant training of police and prosecutors on how to interrogate witnesses and verify witness accounts.
In a brief statement, Thaddeus Jimenez gratefully thanked his lawyers and his mother, stating that as a result of her not giving up hope, he mustered the strength to persevere.
"I survived because of the love and support I received from my mother, who battled cancer and other illnesses while I was away," he stated.
