Illinois once again led the nation in the number of criminal exonerations last year, more than doubling the next closest state, due in large part to overturned convictions tied to disgraced former Chicago Police Department Sgt. Ronald Watts.
, Illinois recorded 38 exonerations in 2021 — 20 more than any other state — marking the fourth consecutive year it has led the nation.
In 2012, Watts and Mohammed were federally indicted and later pled guilty to taking a bribe from an informant. Law enforcement documents have since revealed that Watts and members of his team were running a “protection racket” for more than a decade, planting evidence and fabricating charges against South Side residents while facilitating their own drug and gun trade.
Defendants exonerated in 2021 spent 1,849 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, the report found, an average of 11.5 years per exoneree. But that still doesn’t account for all the time they lost.
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