Life After Innocence
Life After Innocence Home PageMeet The Exonerees
Just before being sentenced for rape, kidnapping and robbery, JERRY MILLER told the trial judge: "Your Honor, I understand that I stand accused and I've been found guilty by the State of Illinois, but I must say that this is a genuine case of mistaken identity. And I just feel that I just been the victim myself. [At] this time it's hard for me to really express myself, but I would appreciate any mercy that you can give me at this present time."
Jerry Miller was then sentenced to 45 years in prison for rape and kidnapping and 7 years for robbery. In the end, Jerry spent almost 25 years in the Illinois prison system for a crime he did not commit. A client of The Innocence Project, Jerry was paroled in 2006. DNA evidence established that it was Robert Weeks, not Jerry Miller, who was responsible for the crime. In 2007, Jerry received a pardon from the governor and became the 200th person in the United States exonerated through DNA evidence.
Even with the pardon, the uphill legal battle has yet to cease. The rape and kidnapping convictions continue to appear on Jerry's record – including when a potential employer conducts a background check – because there is no automatic right to expungement in Illinois, even where an individual receives a pardon based on innocence. Consequently, Jerry may not be able to have his record entirely cleared of the wrongful convictions.
Finally, in July, Jerry filed a petition with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board seeking clemency for a weapons conviction he received while he was wrongfully incarcerated. Jerry pled guilty to possessing a homemade weapon while in prison (Jerry often says, as an innocent man in prison, "It [wa]s better to get caught with it than without it.") With the help of former Assistant United States Attorney Mark Hersh (Reed, Smith), and Life After Innocence, Jerry petitioned for clemency. He was granted a hearing on the matter on October 8, 2009, at which time the Illinois Prisoner Review Board will make a recommendation to the governor on the matter.
Today, Jerry lives with his cousin and her two children in Illinois. A natural negotiator and dealmaker, Jerry's future goals include starting his own business, and he has been working with students at Loyola University Chicago to develop a business model. He is currently working full time at Hudson Book Group at Midway and acts as a vigorous advocate for wrongfully convicted persons in the United States, appearing on several news programs and speaking at different events throughout the country.
DEAN CAGE spent 14 years in the Illinois prison system for a crime he did not commit. In 2005, The Innocence Project took on his case and won his release on May 27, 2008, after DNA evidence established he could not have committed the crime for which he was convicted.
Illinois declared and confirmed Dean's innocence through a Certificate of Innocence, the functional equivalent of a Pardon Based on Innocence, but issued by the court instead of the governor. This Certificate of Innocence was recently challenged by an Illinois prosecutor who asserts that it infringes on the governor's pardon power. Life After Innocence (along with the Illinois Attorney General, Northwestern University School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions, and the University of Chicago Exoneration Project) filed an amicus brief in support of the Certificate of Innocence in response to the challenge. Recently, a DuPage judge ruled that the certificate was not unconstitutional.
Now out of prison for just more than a year, Dean enjoys spending time with his sons and fiancé, Jewel, who testified at his trial as an alibi witness and supported him throughout his wrongful incarceration. CNN recently covered Dean and Jewel as the only couple they’d discovered who had remained together through the long journey of a wrongful conviction. The video and a full story available on CNN.com and on the About Us page of this website. Dean, who has experience in painting, drywall, landscaping and carpentry is working at a barbeque restaurant, and although he is happy with his employment, he is working with Life After Innocence to explore potential employment opportunities with the Pipefitters Union in Illinois or other employment that might provide insurance.
JOVAN MOSLEY spent nearly six years in a holding cell in Cook County jail before he granted a trial to prove his innocence. Freed in 2005 with the help of his lead counsel, Catharine O’Daniel, and Life After Innocence founder Laura Caldwell, Jovan has worked tirelessly to regain his life.
Jovan received his Associates Degree in criminal justice from Daley College in Chicago, and is currently a student at Loyola University Chicago in addition to working full-time, overnight as a psychiatric tech. Jovan, who has worked as a paralegal and law clerk, would like to find employment more conducive to his full-time education schedule. After graduation, Jovan plans to go to law school and hopes to eventually become a judge. Jovan was married to his wife, Andrea, in June 2009. Jovan and Andrea met through Andrea's aunt, who provided ministry to inmates of Cook County Jail and took Jovan into her home after he was released.
ALTON LOGAN served 26 years of a life sentence in prison for a crime for which he as innocent. Alton was convicted in 1983 of murdering a security guard during a robbery of a McDonald's. While awaiting trial, Alton was unaware that Andrew Wilson, an individual convicted of killing two police officers, confessed to committing the murder to his attorneys. The attorneys, bound by attorney-client privilege, were unable to share this invaluable information, and Alton remained in prison. The attorneys prepared an affidavit however, memorializing Wilson's confession in the event they might be able to someday assist Alton.
Andrew Wilson, serving a life sentence of his own, died in prison in November 2007. Following his death, his attorneys appeared before a judge in January 2008, and told of their client's confession. Following further hearings and witness testimony, Alton was released on bond in April 2008, at the age of 54. His case was dismissed and the state eventually elected not to retry him. Alton was formally declared innocent on April 17, 2009, through a Certificate of Innocence issued by Judge Paul Biebel, Jr.
Alton currently lives with his aunt in Chicago and hopes to get a job in the construction industry, having received training in welding, heating, air conditioning, and building maintenance while in prison.
RONALD KITCHEN was freed in July of 2009 after spending 21 years in prison, 13 of which were on death row, for a crime he always maintained he did not commit. Ronald was forced into a false confession during an interrogation in which he was allegedly beaten by detectives under the directive of Commander Jon Burge of the Area 2 police station in Chicago. Ronald was eventually granted a new trial and, with representation by Thomas F. Geraghty and Carolyn E. Frazier of Northwestern's Bluhm Legal Clinic and Mark Oates and Angela Vigil of Baker & McKenzie, was released after prosecutors dropped all charges.
Said Ronald to the Chicago Sun-Times: "If you're getting whooped for over 39 hours and you're constantly saying that you didn't do it and they're constantly doing what they're doing, somewhere along the line you're going to realize they're not going to stop unless somebody gives in…I gave in hoping that the judge and the jury would see that, 'Hey, he's telling the truth.' But it didn't happen that way. It took 20 years."
Ronald now lives in Indiana and has taken a part-time job working with Goodwill Industries. He is interested in pursuing career opportunities that would capitalize on the baking experience he gained while wrongfully in prison.
MARVIN REEVES was working as a South Side auto mechanic when he was wrongfully convicted of arson and murder in 1988. Like his co-defendant Ronald Kitchen, Marvin was a victim of torture at the hands of Chicago Police under the Area 2 associates of Jon Burge. Along with Ronald, Marvin was exonerated on July 7, 2009, after serving 21 years in prison. Despite his lengthy incarceration, Marvin's large family of five sisters and two brothers never doubted his innocence, and supported him for the duration of his time wrongfully imprisoned.
Marvin was serving five consecutive life sentences when he was released after attorneys Michael J. Gill and David D. Pope of Mayer Brown filed a Petition for Post Conviction Relief on his behalf. Marvin and Ronald were granted new trials by Judge Stanley Sacks, however the Illinois Attorney General's Office dropped the charges after it could not sustain its burden of proof due to a lack of physical evidence and the incredulity of the prosecution’s key witness.
After his release, Marvin was granted a Certificate of Innocence and received the maximum compensation from the State entitled to exonerees under Illinois statute. Marvin is currently living with his sister in Chicago and maintains a close relationship with Ronald. Since his release he has spoken out publicly against wrongful convictions, tortured confessions and the death penalty.
JULIE REA HARPER exoneree herself and Life After Innocence's first female client, Julie has seen firsthand how the system can both fail - and then correct itself - when people who believe in its ability to render a just verdict force it to be brought. She was acquitted in a second trial where Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions and Ron Safer [Schiff Hardin, LLP] represented her in 2006. She is now trying to rebuild her life while increasing societal awareness of false presumptions about how the justice system, law enforcement and our right to be presumed innocent in America really work. In fact, this November, Julie will host the first "Women and Innocence" conference in Michigan. The event, the first of its kind, will bring together all of the nation's female exonerees. Laura Caldwell will also be a guest speaker at the event.
PAULA GREY The Ford Heights Four case made headlines when four men were exonerated after wrongfully convicted of the double-homicide of a couple. After fourteen years of incarceration, the men were exonerated. The injustice ultimately resulted in a settlement of $36 million for the four men.
Paula Gray, too, was part of the case, serving as the prosecution's star witness. She testified before a grand jury that she witnessed the four men repeatedly rape the female victim and then shot both the man and woman to death. She was only seventeen at the time, and it was later revealed that the confession was coerced. Paula later recanted her confession. Upon doing so, she was charged with the rape and murders and with perjury. She was sentenced to 50 years for the murders and 10 years, concurrently, for perjury.
In July 2001, Paula's conviction was thrown out, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office appealed the ruling. However, the appeal was rendered moot in November 2002 when Illinois Governor George H. Ryan granted her a pardon based on innocence. The pardon qualified Gray for approximately $100,000 in automatic compensation from the Illinois Court of Claims and enabled a civil rights claim brought on her behalf to proceed.
Today Paula lives in Illinois with her daughter.
ANTOINE DAY was a budding musician when his life forever changed. Day was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and unlawful use of a weapon. He was sentenced to sixty years in prison, convictions arising from the ineffective assistance of his defense counsel.
After serving a decade in prison, Day was released with the help of Howard Joseph. Coming to the end of his real estate law career, Joseph opted to champion Day's case and ultimately exonerated Day on appeal. While some exonerees stand in the limelight upon release, Day quietly picked up the pieces of his life. He initially took employment in the construction field, and today he is the Outreach Coordinator of Prison Reentry at the Howard Area Community Center Employment Resource Center. In this position, Day mentors at-risk teens and parolees; implements job training and placement programs; and runs neighborhood stabilization and anti-violence programs. Day's work helps to better inside and outside Illinois state prisons.
TABITHA POLLOCK Tabitha's three-year-old daughter, Jami Sue, was murdered on October 3, 1995. Her live-in boyfriend at the time, Scott English, confessed to the murder, admitting to killing Jami Sue in the couple's home in Kewanee, Illinois. Tabitha was sleeping at the time of the murder. For three-to-four days following the murder, Tabitha was brought to the police station for questioning. In November, she came before the Grand Jury, presumably to help bolster the case against her boyfriend. However, the prosecution was presenting a case against Tabitha, and immediately upon her Grand Jury testimony, she was taken to county jail, where she spent over one year. Tabitha's trial took place about one year later, at which time a Henry County jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery. The conviction was based on the prosecution's contention that she "should have known" English posed a danger to Jami Sue's life. The judge sentenced Tabitha to thirty-six years in prison. The Third District Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the conviction in 1999.
While incarcerated, Tabitha wrote to the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University Law School. Within two weeks of sending the letter, she received a response. She later met with Jane Raley and some of her students. Raley subsequently took Tabitha’s case. On October 18, 2002, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed Tabitha's conviction. She was released on December 11, 2002.
Tabitha now lives in Arkansas with her husband and her son.
