CAIRO, IL – Danny Davis, an Illinois man falsely convicted of robbery-murder, was freed last week following the presentation of previously withheld evidence, according to the criminal justice non-profit Innocence Project.
In 1992, then-20-year-old Danny Davis and his younger brother Isaac were allegedly implicated in the robbery-murder of a woman in Cairo, Illinois.
According to the Innocence Project, when the two were brought in for questioning, police subjected them to “hours of psychological and physical abuse,” eventually coercing them to make false confessions that incriminated them as well as DeVoe Johnson, an acquaintance of theirs.
Innocence Project claims, during their trial, the looming threat of the death penalty compelled both Danny and Isaac to plead guilty; Danny was then sentenced to life in prison without parole.
DeVoe Johnson, however, went on to a bench trial and the judge (the same judge that sentenced Danny and Isaac, as Innocence Project notes) found him not guilty, citing the confessions’ lack of credibility.
The national Innocence Project and its Illinois branch took on Danny’s case in 2015 and, through litigation, obtained evidence — specifically substantial DNA evidence — that was not disclosed during the 1992 investigation.
The Innocence Project said it found the male DNA from the victim’s fingernails does not match that of Danny, Isaac, or DeVoe, thus ruling out their involvement in the crime.
Last week, after the Innocence Project presented this at an evidentiary hearing, the court subsequently annulled the previous ruling and released Danny Davis, who has served more than three decades in prison.
Danny Davis, now 52 years old, “hopes that other wrongly convicted people will see him and know to keep fighting,” said the Innocence Project in a statement.
However, the Innocence Project disclosed in its statement last week the State of Illinois filed an appeal to the judge’s recent ruling, signaling this case may be far from over.
