CHICAGO — Two brothers wrongly convicted of murder did not leave the Cook County courthouse with their certificates of innocence Thursday.
Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson were hoping to have a judge make a decision on the case without an additional hearing, but that won’t happen now despite what they say is overwhelming evidence that the two are innocent.
It has been a very long journey for the brothers, who are now in their 40s. The two are said to be victims of police torture under disgraced Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.
Tyler and Henderson were just 17 and 18 years old when they were convicted of a 1994 murder. Their confession, they say, was coerced out of them by detectives working for Burge.
They were both exonerated and freed in 2021, but they did not get their certificate of innocence which not only wipes their records clean — but also makes them eligible for $200,000 from the state.
On Monday, the judge in the case said she needed more time to make her decision and scheduled both men to be back in court this morning. On Thursday, she decided she could not make a summary judgment in the case and scheduled another hearing for the first week of May.
The brothers are scheduled back in court on May 4.