SPRINGFIELD — Five months ago, the state’s top court gave an inmate’s unsworn affidavit legal weight, ruling it was enough to prompt lower-court judges to look again at his innocence claims.That decision is reverberating in criminal petitions now, with the high court ordering lower courts to re-examine decisions in four other cases because of its May ruling in People v. James Allen.The Illinois Supreme Court has vacated appellate judgments in the four cases after ruling a confession — allegedly made …