Illinois Innocence Project

06/03/2026

A new book by one of the nation's most prominent researchers, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, was featured in this segment on WGN TV in an interview earlier today. "Crime Fictions: How Racist Lies Built a System of Mass Wrongful Conviction" explores how our ongoing problem with has been fed by what her research showed to be a system purposely designed to ensnare Black youth in order to close cases, and she says there are hundreds of cases still out there that showed up in her research.

Van Cleve is a native Chicagoan as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Brown University and an affiliated scholar with the American Bar Foundation in . A previous book, "Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court," was built on a decade of research and looked at how factors like racial profiling, police brutality and mass incarceration undermined the pursuit of justice in Chicago. That book won 11 awards or finalist distinctions for its contribution to the areas of sociology, law, criminal justice, media and social justice, including the discipline’s highest book honor, The American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Book Prize.

You can watch her WGN interview segment at:

From award-winning sociologist Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve comes the first account of mass wrongful conviction in America, indicting a system purposefully designed to ensnare Black youth in order to …

06/02/2026

Using hypnosis on a witness is a and against the law in many places, including . So why is the state still proceeding like they intend to execute Charles Flores, who is on in a case where there's no evidence tying him to the crime and he looks nothing like the perpetrators originally described by witnesses? His conviction came in a 1999 trial where the only evidence was testimony by a neighbor who had been through a hypnosis session with a police investigator. Texas outlawed such practices as unreliable in 2023, but they didn't make the ruling retroactive. Thus, Flores is left in a position where he is having to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to try and save his life in what is a deeply-flawed case to begin with.

Experts say “investigative hypnosis” often leads to false testimony, but Texas courts have refused to hear Charles Flores’s case.

06/01/2026

Big news from Sunday as the Illinois State Senate approved the bill that IIP has strongly supported which would revise the state statutes regarding compensation for those , so that those who have endured such hardships will have a chance at financial stability once freed. Current law in the state has provided one of the lowest compensation rates among the 40 states that have such a law on the books, with an average of just $11,190 per year wrongfully served. Illinois State Sen. Elgie R. Sims, Jr., helped lead the fight to get the bill through the Senate, and IIP clients and staff provided testimony to help build support for the legislation and make it clear just what impacts were involved. We also thank the many members of the public who responded to requests to contact legislators to express their support for the bill. The bill has now passed in both the Illinois House and Senate.

SPRINGFIELD — People who have been exonerated in Illinois would have a clearer path to financial stability and support under a landmark measure led by State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. that has passed the...

06/01/2026

Just three years ago we launched our new origami logo -- a modern interpretation of the state of Illinois rendered in three segments, each representing a prong of our mission: Advocate, Educate and Reform.

Staff member Karen Meidel, who designed the logo, explained, “The dark blue is in keeping with our previous branding and honors our home at the of Illinois Springfield. The introduction of vibrant sky blue brings our logo into a contemporary space and represents hope for a brighter future in our battle against wrongful convictions."

As for the center portion of the graphic, she says, "That part is in gradient tones, including the word ‘Innocence,’ which brings emphasis to the reason we do what we do – to fight for and protect the .”

05/30/2026

In May 2021, IIP announced the retirement of Executive Director John Hanlon, “a treasured colleague and exceptional attorney who has devoted his career to serving innocent people harmed by the criminal justice system.”

When John joined IIP in 2011, he was in his 24th year practicing criminal defense at the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender. There, he argued and won six death penalty cases in the Illinois Supreme Court and represented 4 individuals proven innocent and released from death row, including Rolando Cruz (pictured here). Of the 19 clients IIP had helped free and/or exonerate at the time, 15 occurred during John’s tenure.

05/29/2026

Our latest edition of the IIP newsletter is chock full of information, including a of the 13 seniors who have been involved in our work who graduated this month.

Join us in celebrating them and learning more about what is going with IIP by checking out the newsletter at: https://emails.uofi.uis.edu/newsletter/39/1486862039.html

05/28/2026

Our IIP client, Julie Rea, has her case held up as an example in this column about the dangers of . One of our earliest cases, Julie was cleared of the unthinkable murder of her son in 1997 in her Lawrenceville, Ill,, home based on bloodstain analysis that was shown to be inaccurate. Her conviction was overturned in 2004, and when the state decided to re-try her in 2006, a jury acquitted her.

This expert column by a former FBI agent and a former Department of Justice attorney explains the dangers of junk science, a leading contributor to . It particularly makes the point of why it is essential that the Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which bars many disproven methodologies of the past, needs to be mandated in all state court proceedings, as well.

The lessons of the FBI failures in microscopic hair and bloodstain pattern analyses are clear.

05/27/2026

IIP’s policy work includes not only supporting mission-forward bills but also serving as a “watchdog” for legislation threatening prevention. We do this either by outright opposing bills or discussing with lawmakers how legislation might be re-formulated. In May 2019, our policy team was resisting bills that would: reverse an eyewitness identification best practice for lineup administration; reduce the documents prosecutors must disclose when requested via the Freedom of Information Act, limit access to information that might help an innocent person; make it easier for the Illinois State Police crime lab to use an entire piece of evidence when conducting DNA testing, destroying any future chance to test that evidence as science advances.

05/26/2026

It was a momentous day in today, with news that three men imprisoned for nearly the last 30 years will be freed, their convictions overturned in a case the city's current prosecutor says had "no integrity" and that they should be . Jermel Shuler, Rasheed Smith, and Mark Brittingham are all scheduled to be freed in the next 24 hours. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project worked on their case in conjunction with the prosecutor's Conviction Integrity Unit.

Three men are being released from prison after a judge overturned their convictions for the 1997 murder of 73-year-old Essie May Thomas.

05/26/2026

This month in 2018, we urged then-Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign our bill limiting the use of jailhouse informant testimony, which is notoriously unreliable. Improper use of jailhouse informants is one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction in Illinois.

These incarcerated individuals, many with long criminal histories, are often paid to provide information to law enforcement. They typically receive benefits in return, such as reduced sentences or immediate release from jail. This creates strong incentive to lie that can result in conviction of innocent people.

Gov. Rauner vetoed the bill, which the General Assembly overturned during the fall 2018 Veto Session.