Two Chicago men freed by DNA after serving 27 years in prison, sue city, officials

Jet, June 21, 2004

Two men cleared in the 1976 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl are suing the city of Chicago and more than a dozen current and former police officials, saying authorities framed them for the crime.

The lawsuits filed by Michael Evans and Paul Terry seek unspecified monetary damages and claim the high-profile nature of the crime put pressure on the Chicago Police Department to close the case. The lawsuit alleges that after weeks without success police charged Evans and Terry even though there was no evidence connecting them to the crime.

"They generally fabricated a cake to railroad and to frame Mr. Evans and Mr. Terry for a murder and rape they didn't commit. Fortunately, the DNA evidence exonerated them. But they're filing this lawsuit to get justice," said Jan Loevy, an attorney for Evans.

Evans and Terry, both 45, were cleared last year through DNA testing of the rape and murder of Lisa Cabassa.

The lawsuits, filed in federal court, allege that more than a dozen current and former police officials coerced witnesses to falsely implicate Evans and Terry, fabricated and altered key evidence, manipulated false identifications, and threatened and used physical violence during interrogations.

The lawsuits also allege that the reports and notes that could have helped establish Evans' and Terry's innocence were destroyed and withheld from their defense teams in secret "street files."

No physical evidence linked Evans or Terry, who were both 17 at the time, to the crime. They were convicted in April 1977 and each was sentenced to 200 to 400 years in prison. They spent 27 years behind bars before they were released in May 2003 after extensive DNA testing.

Flaws in Illinois'justice system have been in the national spotlight since 2000, when former Gov. George Ryan halted executions after 13 men on death row were found to have been wrongly convicted.

Ryan emptied death row before he left office in January by pardoning four men he believed were innocent and commuting the death sentences of 167 others to life in prison (JET, Feb. 24, 2003).

"I can never capture the years that I lost. I can just take one day at a time and just continue to try to be productive and do the light thing," Evans said.