Gov Should Pardon Wrongfully Jailed Man

OPINION: October 19, 2013

Gov should pardon wrongfully jailed man

BY KATIE SHEPHARD

On Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn granted 65 of the trial. As it turns out, Robert was right to clemency requests. While we applaud the be scared. He was convicted in his absence governor’s efforts to deal with the backlog of and sentenced to die in prison. When Robert petitions, one pending petition — filed in was found hiding at a friend’s house two February 2012 — deserves the governor’s months later, he was also convicted of immediate attention. violating his bail bond — a felony. Of course, That is the petition of Robert Taylor, one of he would never have been in a position to the so-called Dixmoor Five, the five teenagers violate his bond if he hadn’t been facing who were wrongfully convicted of rape and wrongful prosecution. murder and then exonerated after spending After spending almost 20 years in prison, nearly two decades in prison. Despite his Robert and the other five boys were proven exoneration, Robert still has a related felony innocent when DNA taken from the victim’s conviction on his record. body was matched to a known sex offender. Robert’s unimaginable ordeal began when At age 34, Robert was released from prison he was a 15-year-old kid. That’s when he was and awarded a certificate of innocence. first wrongfully accused of the 1991 rape and Robert’s record is now clear of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews. He murder convictions. But the jumping bail then spent almost four years in jail waiting for conviction remains. In July 2012, we trial. While his friends were learning to drive represented Robert at a clemency hearing and getting an education, Robert was locked before the Prisoner Review Board, which up. Six months before his trial, his family was makes a recommendation to the governor. We able to post bond. Robert dutifully attended asked for a full pardon for Robert for the bail all his court dates, including the first five days bond conviction. of his trial. Unique and extraordinary circumstances But after that fifth day, Robert couldn’t such as Robert’s are exactly why the governor take it anymore. He had already lost his has the power to pardon. Clemency is about teenage years, and could tell he was going mercy when the criminal justice system is too back to jail. He could see the disdainful look harsh. It provides flexibility for situations like in the jurors’ eyes as they listened to police Robert’s where technically, yes, he broke the officers’ false testimony that he voluntarily law, but extraordinary circumstances greatly confessed to the crime. diminish his moral culpability. At that point, Robert, still just 19 years old, This remaining conviction hinders Robert’s was terrified and didn’t show up for the rest ability to move on with his life. Many jobs are not an option for Robert. In fact, Robert lost A pardon by Gov. Quinn can change all his first job after his release because he failed this. It has been over a year since the a background check. clemency hearing. Each time he fills out a job application, he Gov. Quinn: Pardon Robert Taylor for suffers the embarrassment of disclosing this running away when he was about to be conviction. It is a painful reminder of his two wrongfully convicted, and give him a chance decades of incarceration and injustice and to move forward with his life. limits his ability to provide for his one-year- old son.

------The author is a third-year student at Northwestern University School of Law working with Joshua Tepfer at the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth.