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Man who served 20 years for murder he says was self-defense won’t be retried: 'Not a shred of eviden

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Elderberry:
Chicago Tribune by Stacy St. Clair and Jeff Coen 6/3/2019

Man who served 20 years for murder he says was self-defense won’t be retried: 'Not a shred of evidence' intact

In the months since his release from prison, Terrence Haynes usually found himself lying awake at night wondering whether he might be retried for murder and ordered back to a life of incarceration.

Back to a life of limited sunshine, timed showers and menial jobs. Back to missing his family, staring at cinder block walls and having no free will.

Haynes endured that existence for 20 years, convicted of a first-degree murder that he always insisted was self-defense. A state appellate court agreed there were enough problems with the prosecution’s original case to overturn his conviction last year and order a new trial.

On Monday Haynes walked into the Kankakee County courthouse to learn whether he would have to face a jury again. Wearing a new charcoal-colored suit he bought on Saturday in case he needed it for the trial slated to begin next week, he didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

Just steps into the ornate rotunda, his attorney Shawn Barnett delivered the news. Prosecutors had decided the case against him was too weak to proceed, and in fact, “not a shred of evidence” remained intact from the first trial.

For the first time in two decades, Terrence Haynes was truly a free man.

“You never have to worry about this again,” Barnett told him.

A wide smile spread across Haynes’ face and he wiped his mouth with his hand. Tears welled in his eyes as he looked back toward the building’s security entrance.

“Is my mom here?” he said.

Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe filed paperwork Monday to formally dismiss the charges against Haynes in the 1999 shooting death of 18-year-old Cezaire Murrell. The Tribune profiled Haynes and raised questions about the troubled case against him earlier this year, detailing how the state’s star witness — an 11-year-old boy who was the first cousin of one of the prosecutors — had recanted his testimony and claimed he was encouraged to lie on the stand.

More: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-murder-conviction-terrence-haynes-charges-dropped-20190603-story.html

Sanguine:
Chicago, where the law is whatever they say it is.

sneakypete:

--- Quote ---Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe filed paperwork Monday to formally dismiss the charges against Haynes in the 1999 shooting death of 18-year-old Cezaire Murrell. The Tribune profiled Haynes and raised questions about the troubled case against him earlier this year, detailing how the state’s star witness — an 11-year-old boy who was the first cousin of one of the prosecutors — had recanted his testimony and claimed he was encouraged to lie on the stand.
--- End quote ---
d

I REALLY,REALLY,REALLY hope there will be new trials with new defendants related to this case,but being Chicago,I doubt it will happen.

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