Brothers exonerated for 1994 murder return to court after bid for certificates of innocence delayed
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two brothers who were exonerated for a murder they did not commit after spending nearly 30 years in prison will try again on Thursday to get an official certificate of innocence.
Reginald Henderson and Sean Tyler have said they were teenagers when they were tortured into confessing to the 1994 murder of Rodney Collins by Chicago police officers overseen by disgraced former Commander Jon Burge.
Thursday morning, they will ask a Cook County judge to grant them a certificate of innocence, which would clear their records and allow them to collect damages from the state for their wrongful convictions and imprisonment.
Henderson and Tyler originally hoped to get certificates of innocence at a hearing on Monday, but their case was pushed back after the judge indicated there were some matters she wants to explore further.
The delay left the brothers confused and frustrated.
"I don't see how you can be innocent and still somehow be guilty," Tyler said. "I'm at a loss."
"This is our life," Henderson said. "You have no right to hold us up like this. We're trying to get on."
In 1994, the then 17- and 18-year-old brothers were arrested and tortured by Chicago police officers under the watch of disgraced former CPD Commander Jon Burge, who himself was convicted in 2010 of lying about the torture of suspects. He served more than three years in prison and died in 2018.
The brothers said they were targeted because Tyler had exposed similar police misconduct in the 1991 murder of Alfredo Hernandez, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Tyler had witnessed that murder, and after 13-year-old Marcus Wiggins was arrested for the murder, Wiggins claimed detectives working under Burge tortured him into a false confession. After Tyler testified during a motion to suppress Wiggins' confession, he and his co-defendants were either acquitted, or their cases were dismissed.
When Collins was shot and killed in 1994, the same detectives from the Hernandez case arrested Henderson and Tyler, based on false witness statements, and beat them into false confessions, leading to their convictions, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Tyler was released in 2019 and his brother in 2020.
They were exonerated in 2021, when their convictions were dismissed, after an appeals court allowed for hearings on whether detectives conspired to fabricate evidence, and the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission found that the medical evidence and detectives' troubled history gave merit to their claims.
"Enough is enough," Henderson said. "You know what I mean? It's been 29 years come next month. Enough is enough."
While in prison, Tyler wrote six books and designed a clothing line, which highlights the strength of their fight for innocence.
"Going into prison at 17 wasn't what I came out with at 42," said Tyler. "I truly did have a new vision and I have a new vision."
Henderson earned his college degree, but by the time the brothers were out of prison, their sister had died. Their mother also died not long after they came home.
"How am I doing?" he said. "You tell me."
The brothers will be back in court with their lawyers and family on Thursday morning.
"I want to re-emphasize that irrespective of how she rules, it's not a denial of a certificate of innocence," said attorney Jennifer Bonjean. "The question just merely is whether we're going to have to proceed to a hearing."
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