tn1911
01-14-23, 11:12
A Chicago Attorney Is Getting Justice For Hundreds Of Wrongfully Convicted People All At Once
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/melissasegura/josh-tepfer-mass-exonerations-wrongfully-convicted
For hundreds of people across the Midwest, their new years, new lives, and new selves aren’t marked with a calendar but with a court docket. More specifically, the day that they watched 47-year-old attorney Josh Tepfer walk into a courtroom with his black backpack slung across his shoulder like a college student playing dress-up in a suit.
Tepfer’s bag is to the attorney who frees the innocent what the cape was to Superman, the hammer to Thor — the tool that helps him do the seemingly impossible. And at scale. In it, he carries the briefs, files, and other paperwork that allow him to seek the release of people convicted of crimes they didn’t commit — the raw materials from which he crafts their freedom, renews their spirits, and clears their names.
“He gave me life again,” Daniel Rodriguez, whom Tepfer helped exonerate earlier this year after Rodriguez served 17 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, told BuzzFeed News. “I smile a little bit more because of what he did for me and my family.”
Tepfer’s representation has led to the exoneration of 288 wrongfully convicted people — making him among the most prolific exoneration attorneys since anyone began keeping track. Last August, he spearheaded what is believed to be the first mass exoneration of people convicted of murder, all of their cases hinging on confessions and witness statements that had been obtained by a now-retired police detective, Reynaldo Guevara, who used physical force and manipulation. In a single marathon day of court, Tepfer’s work helped wipe unjust convictions from the records of seven people who’d served a collective 174 years behind bars.
In mass exonerations, groups of those unfairly convicted who have similar complaints — mostly based on repeated misconduct by police or other officials — are cleared at once rather than each person’s appeal having to make its way through the court system. By viewing cases together, courts free up dockets and courtrooms and, ultimately, spare taxpayers the expense of litigating cases one by one. And in Chicago, long known as the false confession capital of the country, the list of those claiming to be wrongfully convicted is long and the court backlog even longer.
Chicago has a huge problem with wrongfull convictions.
So, I went down the google rabbit hole on this one and Jesus!
Seems Chicago PD has far more problems with corruption than even places like NYPD or the LAPD. In just a three year period from 2018, 2019 and 2020 they paid out over a quarter of a billion dollars in lawsuits settlements from claims filed against the CPD.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/melissasegura/josh-tepfer-mass-exonerations-wrongfully-convicted
For hundreds of people across the Midwest, their new years, new lives, and new selves aren’t marked with a calendar but with a court docket. More specifically, the day that they watched 47-year-old attorney Josh Tepfer walk into a courtroom with his black backpack slung across his shoulder like a college student playing dress-up in a suit.
Tepfer’s bag is to the attorney who frees the innocent what the cape was to Superman, the hammer to Thor — the tool that helps him do the seemingly impossible. And at scale. In it, he carries the briefs, files, and other paperwork that allow him to seek the release of people convicted of crimes they didn’t commit — the raw materials from which he crafts their freedom, renews their spirits, and clears their names.
“He gave me life again,” Daniel Rodriguez, whom Tepfer helped exonerate earlier this year after Rodriguez served 17 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, told BuzzFeed News. “I smile a little bit more because of what he did for me and my family.”
Tepfer’s representation has led to the exoneration of 288 wrongfully convicted people — making him among the most prolific exoneration attorneys since anyone began keeping track. Last August, he spearheaded what is believed to be the first mass exoneration of people convicted of murder, all of their cases hinging on confessions and witness statements that had been obtained by a now-retired police detective, Reynaldo Guevara, who used physical force and manipulation. In a single marathon day of court, Tepfer’s work helped wipe unjust convictions from the records of seven people who’d served a collective 174 years behind bars.
In mass exonerations, groups of those unfairly convicted who have similar complaints — mostly based on repeated misconduct by police or other officials — are cleared at once rather than each person’s appeal having to make its way through the court system. By viewing cases together, courts free up dockets and courtrooms and, ultimately, spare taxpayers the expense of litigating cases one by one. And in Chicago, long known as the false confession capital of the country, the list of those claiming to be wrongfully convicted is long and the court backlog even longer.
Chicago has a huge problem with wrongfull convictions.
So, I went down the google rabbit hole on this one and Jesus!
Seems Chicago PD has far more problems with corruption than even places like NYPD or the LAPD. In just a three year period from 2018, 2019 and 2020 they paid out over a quarter of a billion dollars in lawsuits settlements from claims filed against the CPD.