On December 15 an Illinois appel­late court reversed Juan Rivera​’s (pic­tured) con­vic­tion for a mur­der com­mit­ted almost 20 years ago. The case is rem­i­nis­cent of many in Illinois that led to the state’s abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in 2011. Rivera was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison for killing 11-year-old Holly Staker based on a con­fes­sion after near­ly 24 hours of near-con­stant inter­ro­ga­tion. No phys­i­cal evi­dence or wit­ness­es con­clu­sive­ly linked him to the crime, and test­ing of DNA found on the vic­tim, con­duct­ed in 2005, exclud­ed him as the source. The review­ing court stat­ed, ​“After view­ing the evi­dence in the light most favor­able to the pros­e­cu­tion, we hold that no ratio­nal tri­er of fact could have found the essen­tial ele­ments of the crime beyond a rea­son­able doubt. Because the State’s evi­dence was insuf­fi­cient to estab­lish guilt beyond a rea­son­able doubt, we must reverse the con­vic­tion of Juan A. Rivera, Jr.” Rivera’s case was high­light­ed in a recent New York Times Magazine arti­cle that not­ed there have been more than 250 exon­er­a­tions through DNA test­ing, and near­ly 76% of the orig­i­nal con­vic­tions were based on wit­ness misiden­ti­fi­ca­tion or flawed forensic evidence.

According to Illinois’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, which rep­re­sent­ed Rivera, his exon­er­a­tion is the 98th in the state since 1989, includ­ing 18 from death row. Of the 98, 48 involved false con­fes­sions. When Illinois abol­ished the death penal­ty ear­li­er this year, Governor Pat Quinn cit­ed the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions as a key rea­son for repeal, say­ing, ​“Since our expe­ri­ence has shown that there is no way to design a per­fect death penal­ty sys­tem, free from the numer­ous flaws that can lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions or dis­crim­i­na­to­ry treat­ment, I have con­clud­ed that the prop­er course of action is to abol­ish it. With our bro­ken sys­tem, we can­not ensure jus­tice is achieved in every case.”

(A. Martin, ​“The Prosecution’s Case Against DNA,” New York Times Magazine, November 25, 2011; newslet­ter and pho­to from Center on Wrongful Convictions, Dec. 15, 2011). See Innocence.

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