Illinois Governor Pardons 4 Wrongfully Convicted Men
Illinois Governor George Ryan today pardoned four wrongfully convicted men. DNA evidence proved them innocent. The four, including one who was an 8th grader at the time who could barely read, say their confessions were coerced.
Two other men were charged ain February and are facing the death penalty in the case after DNA testing allegedly identified them as the killers.
"It was very clear to him by looking at the totality of the circumstances that there was a terrible injustice that occurred," Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said Thursday.
The four Marcellius Bradford, Omar Saunders and cousins Calvin Ollins and Larry Ollins were convicted in the 1986 death of medical student Lori Roscetti in Chicago. Calvin Ollins was 14 at the time, an eighth-grade special education student who could barely read.
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