GUESTWORK | Larry Golden
A special event will take place in Springfield on Monday, May 24, when exoneree Rolando Cruz comes to Springfield to recognize those who helped free him almost 15 years ago.
In 1983, 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico was kidnapped from her Naperville home in the middle of the day, taken to a nearby wooded location and brutally killed. But despite the tragedy of the killing and the injustice of the wrongful convictions that followed, there are stories that don’t get told very often of those who, at great personal cost, pursued justice.
Some law enforcement officials followed stereotypical thinking to focus on Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, lower class Hispanics living in the nearby town of Aurora. Cruz and Hernandez were convicted despite the confession, shortly after Cruz’s first conviction, of the real perpetrator, Brian Dugan. Their arrests, convictions and death sentences comprise one of the most renowned innocence stories in American legal history. Cruz was tried three times and spent 12 years on death row before he was shown to be innocent and then released.
The case became nationally known as a major example of prosecutorial misconduct.
Innocence Project reception
Mary Brigid Hayes, Ed Cisowski and John Sam will be formally recognized and thanked by Rolando Cruz with “Profiles in Courage” Awards Monday evening, May 24, 5-7 p.m. at the Executive Mansion at an awards reception sponsored by the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project. Reservations can be made by calling 206-7989 or at www.innocence.uis.edu.
Reporters Thomas Frisbie and Randy Garrett wrote their book, Victims of Justice Revisited, about the case. Following Cruz’s exoneration a special grand jury indicted seven highly prominent individuals – four sheriff’s deputies and three former prosecutors – for perjury and obstruction of justice in the case. Although a DuPage County jury acquitted the seven, the county later agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle the defendants civil rights claims.
Despite the wrongful prosecution, many who constituted the legal team, such as local lawyers Michael Metnick, John Hanlon and investigator Bill Clutter, vigorously fought to have the truth told and justice achieved. The legal team also relied upon other individuals who demonstrated courage to the point of sacrificing established careers because they believed Cruz and Hernandez were innocent. These individuals include:
DuPage County Detective John Sam.
Sam had a distinguished record for nearly 11 years. After reviewing all the evidence in the
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