Members of Northwestern Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions helped overturn the wrongful murder conviction of a man who had served 21 years of an 80-year prison sentence on Tuesday.
Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges against Jacques Rivera, 46, following the 2010 recantation of the witness whose testimony constituted the only incriminating evidence in the case. The witness, 35-year-old Orlando Lopez, was only 12 years old at the time of the murder and initial testimony in 1988. He recanted his statements after investigators located him in Ohio, saying he had misidentified the suspect.
Jennifer Linzer, assistant director of the center, helped locate Lopez and was present for his initial recantation. She said Lopez referred to the disclosure of his false testimony as a moment of “redemption.”
“The recantation was so pure and it was so spontaneous,” Linzer said. “It was a moment that is sort of frozen in time. It’s something I will never time.”
Michele Corriston contributed reporting.
laurencaruba2015@u.northwestern.edu