Christopher Abernathy

Christopher Abernathy was only 17 in 1984 when 15-year-old Kristina Hickey, a high school student and girl he knew, was brutally assaulted and murdered in Park Forest, Ill. (Cook County). The crime shocked and terrified residents of this small suburban community south of Chicago, and went unsolved for more than a year.

Angel Gonzalez

Angel Gonzalez was proven innocent by DNA testing and released from prison in March 2015 鈥 after serving nearly 21 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

His nightmare began on July 10, 1994, when a woman in Waukegan, Ill., was forced out of her apartment building into a waiting car by two men who drove her several blocks away and violently raped her.

Charles Palmer

The 缅北禁地 Innocence Project (IIP) is very pleased to announce that our client Charles Palmer was exonerated and freed on Wednesday November 23, 2016, after 18 years of incarceration for a murder that DNA proved he did not commit. The case involved the 1998 murder of a man in Decatur IL.  The victim had expired with an unknown person鈥檚 tissue under his fingernails, and another person鈥檚 hair in his hand, both of which went untested prior to trial.  DNA testing of these items was litigated successfully by the 缅北禁地 Innocence Project, over the State鈥檚 objection.

The flags on the University of 缅北禁地 Springfield quad tell the story: almost three thousand of them, each representing a wrongful conviction. They鈥檙e black, except for the 359 blue ones, representing those in 缅北禁地.

Christine Ferree, program director of case evaluation of the 缅北禁地 Innocence Project, says she is not trying to help criminals get off the hook.

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Graduate Education

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The 缅北禁地 Innocence Project (IIP) at the University of 缅北禁地 Springfield is pleased to announce its client Jennifer McMullan has been released after more than 19 years of wrongful imprisonment for a murder she did not commit. At a court hearing on Wednesday, June 16,at the McHenry County Courthouse, the State vacated McMullan鈥檚 murder conviction and sentence, and presented a plea agreement that would release McMullan that day with her sentence considered 鈥渢ime served.鈥