Cook County prosecutors are dropping all charges against a man who has spent almost two-thirds of his life in prison for a double murder he has maintained he did not commit.
The Exoneration Project was victorious in proving to the courts that detectives coerced the man into confessing to the crime of killing his two neighbors — the one item leading to a conviction of the then-teenager.
During a March 29, 2022 hearing, presided over by Judge Carol Howard, prosecutors said they would be dropping charges against David Wright after an appeals court threw out his 1994 confession. At 17, Wright had admitted to murdering Tyrone Rockett and Robert Smith while under duress, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Wright was arrested on Aug. 23, 1994, for the crimes. Six months after his neighbors’ deaths, Chicago detectives approached the teen and told them he was pinned as one of the suspects in the fatal shootings.
Despite not having any physical or forensic evidence or any witnesses to place him at the crime, they brought him in for questioning, Wright’s lawyer David Owens from the Exoneration Project shared.
He said his client signed a confession after being interrogated and abused for 14 to 15 hours straight. The police also reportedly lied to Wright, telling him his brother was a suspect and that he would be placed on death row because he was an adult if he did not admit to the murders.
Last year, the Exoneration Project produced records that showed at least 25 overturned or dropped convictions connected to these same detectives and argued, like in the case of Wright, they used illegal policing tactics or engaged in misconduct to convict innocent people.
At least 10 people who were forced to confess were acquitted at trial, and at least eight people had their charges dropped before going to trial, despite the officers having these false confessions.
Detectives James Cassidy, Kenneth Boudreau and John Halloran “have a well-documented…
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