Chicago City Wire

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has exonerated over 250 since first taking office in late 2016, and nine Chicago-based social justice groups want more. The groups, including the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression and the Chicago Torture Justice Center, have scheduled a rally for September 30 outside Foxx’s office at 69 W. Washington Street to demand the release of 21 more they contend were wrongfully convicted.

“Free More Before You Walk Out the Door” is the rallying cry for the groups according to a flyer posted on X. “Demand the State’s Attorney free more wrongfully convicted men and woman before she leaves office. Free them all.”

Foxx vacates the office in January when her second four-year term ends.  

At Chicago City Wire’s request, Dod McColgan, Co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, emailed a list of names of those the groups claim are wrongfully imprisoned.

“On September 30th we'll be rallying to demand exonerations/motions to vacate convictions/clemency for the following cases,” McColgan said in the email.

McColgan did not respond to a request to explain the criteria activists used to assemble the list.

The claims of at least three of the names, Rico Clark, Lester Owens, and Kilroy Watkins, are nearly identical to that of Foxx's exonerees on the basis that police coerced, or even tortured them, into confessing to the crimes.

Foxx exonerations reported on by City Wire were justified based on similar claims of torture, fabrication of evidence and police conspiring with prosecutors to secure convictions. But former detectives and prosecutors interviewed by City Wire are adamant that no confessions were coerced, no evidence was fabricated, and no secret deals were made with prosecutors to ensure convictions.

The exonerations have led to dozens of wrongful conviction cases filed in federal court by plaintiff attorneys representing those making the claims. Many have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.

This past April, for example, Chicago City Council approved a $50 million settlement for the Marquette Park Four, convicted of a 1995 double murder at a car dealership on the Southwest Side.

The four, Charles Johnson, Larod Styles, TroShawn McCoy and LaShawn Ezell, were exonerated by Foxx just weeks after she first took office in December 2016. They filed wrongful convictions suits in federal court in 2018, claiming the police forced them into false confessions.

For an earlier story on the case, retired city Detective Kenneth Boudreau, named in the wrongful conviction lawsuits, called the settlement "a travesty of justice.”

Boudreau said he was “front and center” on the lawsuits even though he had very little to do with the case.

“I did not process the crime scene. I did not arrest anyone. I did not interview anyone,” he said. “My only involvement was to help with the lineup.”

Foxx exonerated the four despite the fact that prosecutors in her office were reportedly pushing for a new trial in light of the introduction of new evidence in the case.

“The city got into this mess by settling these lawsuits instead of fighting them in court,” Boudreau said. “And now there doesn’t seem to be any end to it.”

The other groups taking part in the September 30 rally include: Justice for Nick Lee Memorial Foundation, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Saving Our Urban Leaders, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Mothers Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity, National Lawyers Guild UIC Law Chapter, AntiWar Committee Chicago, and Arab American Action Network. 

Chicago City Wire is following this developing story.