Wrongful convictions are straling people’s freedoms.
Cook county IL is known for tbe higest rate of wrongful convictions. These cases are usually filled with Brady violations such as destroyed evidence, withheld evidence & false testimony.
Some solutions could be actually charging prosecutors who violate these protective laws as their immunity does not apply to purposeful actions.
Another option is to make the burden of proof in post conviction filings easier to meet. When a constitutional rights violation is found it should be in favor of the defendent. When perjury is discovered the case should be overturned. If there is a need for the prosecution to violate rights then they don’t have a case.
As it is now the defendant has to prove that he was harmed by the violation. The violation itself is harm!
And another is to make it easier to move the case to federal court when there is a constitutional violation of rights instead of needing to exhaust all state appeals first. That equates to years of illegsl incarceration. It shod not take 10-20 years to prove a wringful conviction.
The Constitution is not followed, either is case law, in Cook county IL.
My friend has been wrongfully incarcerated for just short of 23 years. A drug addict/drug dealer friend pointed a gun at his head & she was accidentally killed when he tried to disarm her. We later found out it was because their mutual friend was her supplier & the supplier offered to erase her debt if she “scared” my friend away because he was trying to get the dealer off drugs.
I was at the 2nd trial (1st was so corrupt it was actually iverturned). The prosecutors lied & said he shot the girl 5 times. There was 1 entrance wound, & no exit wound, so all of tbe projectiles remained in her head. Autopsy report says they removed 3 pieces of bullet jacketing & 2 pieces of lead. Ballistics shows that is either 1 or 2 bullets. Supporting that her death was an accident because he had to defend himself from her pointng the gun at him.
The prosecutors presented 5 pieces of jacketing & 2 pieces of lead & insisted he shot her 5 times, negating claims of self defense turned accident. Yet the 2 pieces of lead can only mean 2 bullets at the most.
The medical examiner testified with contradicting stories & hos autopsy report was never changed. He also testified that he wasnt sure where the projectiles came from.
When we wanted to view the actual autopsy we, along with the defense attorney, realized thst the state witnesses testified to recording the autopsy but never tendered the videotape to the defense.
Those are just a few violations. See the post conviction petition for People v. Gallano for the rest.
We have been fighting since 2006 to no avail when the violations are clear & obvious in the county with the most wrongful convictions on record. And its not the only place it happens.
Prosecutors & their teams need to be held accoutable & citizens need easier remedies & more recourse to constitutional rights violations