Photo Courtesy of WGN9TV
On August 12, a Black man who served 30 years in a Chicago, Illinois prison walked free and has filed a lawsuit against the city and high-ranked police officers after being framed for a crime he did not commit.
According to WGN-Chicago, Keith Walker was arrested in his twenties during the Jon Burge era in Chicago, which saw Burge as commanding officer of the police department and was accused of torturing innocent men to force confessions out of them.
“There is no way in the world I should have been spending my whole life in prison for something I didn’t do,” Walker told the outlet.
Walker explained that in 1991, he was one of those wrongly convicted men under Burge’s regime being tortured into confessing to a crime he never committed.
Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, an attorney with the Exoneration Project, said, “He was the victim of the black box we’ve come to know now.”
“He was electrocuted, he was threatened with guns, he was beaten, he experienced horrible, horrible things,” she added.
Walker’s attorneys stated that he was still convicted to life in prison despite no physical evidence pointing to his guilt.
Sean Starr, who is also an attorney with the Exoneration Project, said, “We see today the way in which police mistreat people of color in this country.”
“Keith is both a person who was subjugated and oppressed and tortured 30 years ago, and he’s an emblem for the change that needs to happen in the world we live in today,” he added.
Walker thanked his attorneys for fighting for justice in his case.
“If it wasn’t for them, my attorneys and the people behind me, I would probably be rotting in prison because I’m fighting every day for them to hear my case. If you say due process of the law, I can’t tell,” Walker said.
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The Attorney General’s office released a statement saying the following, “After determining that we are unable to sustain our burden of proof, we today took steps to end the case against Keith Walker, and we have been in touch with the family of the victim of the underlying crime to inform them of our decision.”
“The Attorney General is committed to continuing to prosecute violent crimes when cases are referred to our office, to supporting the victims of crime and their families, and to working toward police reform that will restore public trust and avoid undermining prosecutions,” the statement continued.
Walker is grateful to finally have the chance to be with his family and live a normal life.