Antonio McDowell, 49, has been out of jail since 2020 when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker granted him clemency.
After 28 years, he’s utterly free — following a decide’s resolution Monday morning.
McDowell’s legal professionals stated he was sentenced to 103 years in jail after being framed for homicide by the now-retired disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara.
The phrase McDowell used to elucidate his emotions following the choice.
“I am so overwhelmed proper now,” he stated.
McDowell was surrounded by household, pals, and attorneys exterior the Prepare dinner County Courthouse, the place, after 28 years and a wrongful conviction, he stated he lastly walks free.
“I ain’t assume this second would come, however I used to be all the time longing for this second,” McDowell stated.
For years, McDowell was represented and supported by attorneys with The Exoneration Challenge and the civil rights legislation agency Loevy and Loevy. Now, McDowell is the 51st particular person exonerated in a case investigated by Guevara.
Whereas Guevara has by no means been charged, the CBS Information Chicago investigators for years dug into the accusations of Guevara coercing false confessions way back to the Eighties.
“I simply need you to know, for those who run right into a Guevara, stand your floor,” McDowell stated. “Justice will prevail.”
On this case, McDowell walked into CPD’s Grand Central Space Headquarters, at 5555 W. Grand Ave., in July of 1997 after he had been shot. He by no means left.
Whereas there, McDowell and his attorneys stated Guevara tried to get him to falsely establish Guevara’s chosen suspect within the taking pictures. When McDowell refused to falsely establish another person, they are saying he went from being a sufferer of a taking pictures to being framed because the perpetrator in an unrelated homicide. Convicted, he served 23 years earlier than he was granted clemency.
“That was Antonio McDowell’s crime! Making an attempt to do the appropriate factor,” stated lawyer Anand Swaminathan. “It is sick.”
Whereas his homicide conviction was thrown out when he was exonerated, prosecutors keep a carjacking conviction associated to the homicide cost stays on his document, that means he could possibly be retried.
Final month, a decide issued a choice vacating the carjacking conviction, emphasizing McDowell’s account of going from victim-to-suspect, and Guevara’s plain sample of misconduct. Prosecutors dropped the cost on Monday.
“There’s all the time a approach out. Do not lose hope. Keep linked to your individuals, to your help staff,” McDowell stated.
