Illinois leads nation in overturned wrongful convictions

By Dilpreet Raju Capitol News Illinois

Posted February 29, 2024 3:10 PM

Updated March 1, 2024 10:58 AM

In December, 57-year-old Brian Beals spent Christmas with his sister Pattilyn for the first time 35 years. Beals was exonerated and freed from Robinson Correctional Center in southeastern Illinois on Dec. 13 after a Cook County circuit court judge vacated his conviction and dismissed charges against him.“In that moment, I was just trying to process how this all happened,” Beals told Capitol News Illinois. “Prison erases your ability to have hope.”In 1990, a jury convicted Beals of first-degree …

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