Today in court, Cook County Judge Alfredo Maldonado, with agreement from the Cook County State’s Attorney's Office, vacated the wrongful murder conviction of Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) client Jerry Herrington, dismissing all charges and fully exonerating him. IIP is based at the University of Illinois Springfield.
At just 16, Herrington was convicted of a murder he did not commit. He spent 29 years wrongfully imprisoned before he was released in 2020, at 45, after serving his full sentence.
“Jerry was just a child when he was wrongfully imprisoned,” said IIP Senior Staff Attorney Leanne Beyer. “He and his family are overjoyed about his exoneration. Their journey through the justice system has taken way too long. We appreciate the efforts made by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to investigate this case and for their willingness to right this wrong after more than three decades.”
In 1991, Herrington was a talented football player who had just completed his freshman year of high school in suburban Cook County when he was ripped from his family and accused of shooting a woman in Chicago. He knew nothing about the crime.
Herrington’s case features hallmark signs of injustice: physical and psychological abuse of a juvenile by law enforcement, interrogation of a juvenile in the absence of an attorney or a parent and the use of a single testimony to create a false “eyewitness identification.”
Evidence shows that Chicago police punched and slapped Herrington while he was handcuffed to the wall and denied his request to call his mother or his grandmother. Officers then reported he had verbally confessed – although he never signed a written confession, and no recording of the interrogation was made. Herrington has always maintained he did not confess.
The only other “evidence” against Herrington put forth by law enforcement was a statement from a 16-year-old informant, who investigators had in their custody, claiming to have seen the shooting. This purported witness gave three very different locations of where he was when the shooting occurred. Herrington’s defense at trial failed to include powerful evidence showing how far these locations were from the crime scene and the obstructed view the individual would have had from those locations.
“The evidence now shows that the police fabricated the testimony by this juvenile informant, who never participated in a lineup,” Beyer said. “The first and only time he identified Jerry as the shooter was in the courtroom from the witness stand.”
Though Herrington was 16, he was tried as an adult and – despite the scant, unreliable evidence against him – sentenced to 60 years in prison. Since then, courts are increasingly recognizing that “children are constitutionally different from adults.” In 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a 40-year sentence for a juvenile is effectively a life sentence.
New evidence in Herrington’s case has emerged since his wrongful conviction. Two credible new witnesses came forward stating they saw the shooting and knew the identity of the real perpetrator but were frightened to come forward at the time. Moreover, the officers who investigated this case and abused Herrington are now the subject of numerous allegations regarding systematic misconduct and abuse, as well as fabricated evidence.
In court, Herrington was represented by Beyer, IIP Legal Director Lauren Kaeseberg and IIP Staff Attorney Brandon Klages. IIP Senior Staff Investigator Lynn Bagley provided critical investigation in the case.
“The countless hours IIP staff and students spend in the office and field, miles traveled locating witnesses hidden by the passage of time and words carefully inked on court pleadings are a testament to the complexities faced not only by Jerry in proving his innocence but also for the innocent men and women behind bars attempting to achieve the same,” said Klages, who began working on Herrington’s case almost eight years ago as an IIP intern at UIS.
“When Jerry’s case first crossed my desk as a UIS intern at IIP, I was barely three years older than he was at the time his nightmare began,” he said. “I’m so proud to stand with him today – now as a lawyer representing an innocent man who is finally getting his good name back.”
In June 2020, at 45, Herrington completed his sentence and was released from the Illinois Department of Corrections after serving 29 years. This occurred after IIP advocated to have his good time credits properly applied to his sentence. Herrington then was required to serve a term of mandatory supervised release, which he completed successfully.