Gabriel Solache and Arturo DeLeon-Reyes were forced to confess to a murder they didn’t commit by detectives who beat them. They were exonerated in December. Now the government wants to deport them.
Freedom was short-lived for two Mexican immigrants recently released after nearly 20 years in an Illinois prison when a judge ruled their confessions in a gruesome double-murder case were likely coerced.
“But I do know he did see the sunshine without handcuffs on and could see a park and all of those were a first for him in a really long time,” said Andrew Vail, a Jenner and Block attorney who worked on the case for free.
DeLeon-Reyes and Solache’s release adds a chapter to what has become one of the most troubling stories of the Chicago Police Department in recent history. The allegations of Guevara’s brutality last year led to five overturned convictions. In previous years there have been other cases. One resulted in a 2009 jury award of $21 million — the largest award in a wrongful conviction judgment at the time — to a man who spent 11 years in prison before his conviction was overturned.
Guevara has repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent when he’s been called to respond to defendants’ allegations in several cases. He did the same late last year at a hearing for Solache and DeLeon-Reyes, but this time prosecutors granted him immunity hoping his testimony would keep their convictions intact.
But Guevara’s answer to every question was read more here…
Wrongful Convictions Blog 