Natalia Chi
Reginald Henderson and his brother Sean Tyler spent decades in prison while battling murder convictions and claiming they were beaten by Chicago police detectives. It was disappointing to learn that we’d have to wait at least a few more months before we knew if we’d wipe the record for .
Judge Erica Reddick on Thursday set up a May hearing on whether to grant a certificate of innocence in the 1994 murder case.
Reddick’s ruling was bitter news for Henderson and Tyler. The two each served their more than 25-year sentences, but motions to overturn their convictions were pending.
In September 2021, after both brothers were released on parole, prosecutors agreed to vacate the convictions and subsequently dropped all charges. However, state attorneys are against issuing certificates of innocence to the two men. It would formally remove arrest and prosecution records, give people the right to counseling, and pay up to $200,000 from state funds for those wrongfully convicted.
“when [prosecutors] appeared before the judge [in 2021] …and dropped all charges, why are we here today?” Henderson stood in the lobby of Layton Criminal Court on Thursday with his brother and about 20 supporters. .
“If you did what you did that day and said we were dropping all charges, they didn’t have enough evidence to file a lawsuit then, why now?” do you want?”
A two-day hearing in May will likely take the form of a mini-trial reviewing the evidence in the shooting death of 10-year-old Rodney Collins. Back of the Yard.
Since Tyler and Henderson were tried and convicted in the mid-1990s, multiple witnesses have recanted their testimony, and, as the two attorneys point out, dozens of defendants have been involved in the case. make similar allegations of torture by criminals who processed Prosecutors point to one woman who told defense attorneys that police told her to identify Tyler and Henderson and paid her $1,100 to move out of the neighborhood, and has since been accused of murdering her. He told investigators that the testimony was true.
It remains to be seen if the lawyers will have to discuss the two being victims of torture. It said it would beat two teenage suspects and ask them not to demand that they prove instead that the “patterns and practices” of abuse had been proven.How many defendants have made similar claims to detectives? 10 or more incidents.
Attorneys for Tyler and Henderson allege in the filing of the case that Boudreau and O’Brien targeted the brothers. Tyler testified in defense of 13-year-old Marcus Wiggins. Beaten and shocked by two detectives and others working for the Barge. Tyler had witnessed the shooting, and his testimony ruled Wiggins’ confession out of the case, leading to his acquittal.
Three years later, Boudreau and O’Brien arrested then-18-year-old Henderson and 17-year-old Tyler on charges of murdering Rodney Collins, beat up a witness who identified the brothers, and guided a neighbor who witnessed the shooting to find the brothers. It is said that the incident was forced on Name the pair as suspects.
Henderson claims he was repeatedly beaten in an interrogation room, handcuffed without food or toilet access, and held in custody for more than 48 hours before finally signing a confession. His brother was arrested the next day and said he too was beaten before he could confess.
At each of the brothers’ trials, detectives denied any abuse to them or other suspects, but in the decades that followed, allegations of torture by police who worked under Burge were dismissed by dozens of judges. 2020 State Torture Investigation and Relief Commission ruled Tyler’s abuse claim It was worthy of jury review. The commission has denied Henderson’s request to reconsider the allegations in 2021, as Henderson’s conviction has been overturned.
Chicago police moved to remove Barge in 1993. In 2008, he was charged with lying about the abuse of suspects when questioned about a lawsuit filed by a man who claimed he was tortured by Burge or his detectives. Burge he was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to over four years in prison. He passed away in 2018.
