Source: Paul Bradbury / Getty
Four men are about to enjoy a very high payday, but it’s coming at an invaluable price – 17 years of their freedom.
Michael Saunders, Vincent Thames, Harold Richardson and Terrill Swift, known as the “Englewood 4” were wrongfully imprisoned between 1994 and 2011 for the alleged rape and murder of a 30-year-old prostitute, Nina Glover. The men were just teenagers, aged 15-18 at the time of their arrest.
Nina Glover was found in a dumpster behind a South-Side Chicago liquor store, wrapped in a bloody sheet. An autopsy determined that her cause of death was strangulation. Police site that she had a “rough” life of drugs and prostitution.
Though the four men were initially incarcerated after confessing to the crimes, investigators in the case are being accused of having used psychological manipulation and coercion to get the then-teenagers to confess to this crime that they didn’t commit – the true killer was identified after tests performed in 2011 matched the DNA found on Glover’s body to a different 2008 murder. There was never any physical evidence to determine that the Englewood 4 were guilty.
The city of Chicago has agreed to pay a $31 million settlement to the men. It’s unclear over what time period the payments will be made.
source Chicago Tribune
