Chicago, IL – Civil rights group ColorOfChange.org delivered more than 66,000 petition signatures to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. The petition demands that State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez immediately acknowledge the innocence of 10 falsely accused Black men (known as the Cook County 10) and agree to vacate the convictions of 9 who were convicted for crimes they didn’t commit.
Recent DNA testing has proven the innocence of the men, most of whom were forced to confess as teenagers to crimes they didn’t commit. Some of them have been imprisoned for nearly 20 years. Despite overwhelming evidence that has linked the crimes to the real killers, state officials have refused to recognize the innocence of these men.
ColorOfChange.org was joined on Tuesday by the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, the Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago, and Terrill Swift. Swift was paroled last year after spending 15 years in an Illinois prison for rape and murder, DNA testing performed during the original investigation indicated his innocence. Attorneys for the men, Joshua Tepfer and Tara Thompson were also present. Tepfer said of the ten, “In each case the confessions were the only evidence connecting these teenagers to the crime used to secure the convictions. These confessions were false, they were lies, there were coerced from scared, young teenagers who never envisioned that their false confessions would send them to prison for the better part of their lives.”
Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org, addressing the crowd and the office of Attorney Alvarez, said, “We’re here to deliver over 60,000 petitions calling on Anita Alvarez to use her power to right ten wrongs. Anita Alvarez, your office has the opportunity to ensure a speedy release for these wrongfully convicted Cook County residents. I expect that you will act on your moral and legal obligation to do what is right and within your authority to correct these injustices. I urge you to immediately agree to overturn the convictions of these now-grown men, allowing them to proceed with the rest of their lives.”
Thompson followed up saying, “Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has known about the DNA results in each of these cases since early this year and yet continues to oppose their release.”
Coerced confessions play a part in almost a quarter of all wrongful convictions nationwide. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that teenagers are particularly susceptible to falsely incriminating themselves during questioning from police and should not be subjected to harsh interrogation tactics.
Earlier this month, Swift told Chicago Tribune reporter Steve Mills, “If I was guilty, I would have done my time and tried to proceed with my life. But I can’t continue to walk around like a convicted felon when I didn’t do nothing. So I’m fighting it.”
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With more than 750,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest African-American online political organization.