Legal Commentary

Wrongfully Convicted Man Awarded $21.1 Million

By Jeralyn

A federal jury today awarded Juan Johnson $21.1 million in damages. Johnson spent 11 years in prison for a crime of which he was later acquitted.

Johnson and his brother, Henry, were convicted in 1991 of beating a man to death and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The two spent 11 and a half years in prison before the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the convictions in 2002 based on new evidence that showed the detective had coerced witnesses to implicate the brothers.

"He ruined my life," Johnson said Monday. "I didn't expect to survive. I had given up hope."

Johnson was acquitted at a retrial. [More...]

Jon Loevy, one of Johnson's attorneys, said that in the latest suit, two people testified that the detective pressured them to name Johnson.

"He just grabbed some guys and basically got them all telling a story implicating Juan Johnson when in fact Juan Johnson had nothing to do with the crime," Loevy said.

The attorney for the city of Chicago maintained:

Gang leaders were targeting and attempting to punish the detective because he was aggressive and successful, he said.

Really?

Rob Warden, executive editor of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, said his group is working on 40 cases that involve the same former member of the Chicago police force.

The detective, who is not being named publicly by the media, is now retired. Why isn't he being named? The pleadings are public records and since when is there a rule that a person isn't named unless criminal charges are brought? Maybe more victims of this detective would come forward if his name was publicized.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).