The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit has been investigating the case of Tyrone Hood who was convicted of the 1993 murder of Illinois Institute of Technology basketball star Marshall Morgan, Jr. As reported earlier in the Chicago Tribune (here), the imprisoned Hood has steadfastly claimed innocence, even when an admission of knowledge of the case could have shaved time off his 75-year sentence.
According to the article, an insurance company was suspicious of the possible involvement of the basketball player’s father, Marshall Morgan, Sr., in his son’s murder. Morgan Sr. had taken out a $50,000 life insurance policy on his son prior to the murder by gunshot wound and collected on it after his son’s death.
Morgan Sr.’s fiancé, school-teacher Michelle Soto, was murdered two years later, in 1995. Morgan had also taken out an insurance policy on her, and according to the CBS Chicago report (here), he collected $107,000 after her death. Soto’s murder has never been solved.
Morgan Sr. was never charged in these cases, but he is now in prison after being convicted of murdering a girlfriend in 2001. According to the CBS report, he had also served time in the 1970s for killing a friend.
Witnesses against Hood have recanted, and Hood’s lawyers have alleged that police detectives involved in the case had a history of questionable arrests.
According to the CBS Chicago report, members of the families of both Tyrone Hood and Michelle Soto believe that investigators and the justice system got the wrong man in the murder Marshall Morgan Jr., and that both Michelle Soto and the victim in the later murder for which Morgan Sr.’s was convicted would be alive today if they are correct.
Hood’s lawyers are asking for a new trial. The Conviction Integrity Unit is expected to release its findings soon, perhaps as early as next week.
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