CHICAGO, June 4 (UPI) -- A 30-year-old Chicago man who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit now has a piece of paper certifying his innocence.
The certificate also allows Thaddeus Jimenez to collect $200,000 in compensation, the Chicago Tribune reports. He was given the certificate of innocence Wednesday, although he was released last month.
Steven Drizin, a lawyer for the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, said the Legislature created the certificates because Illinois has a large backlog of requests for pardons from the governor.
"Basically this certificate of innocence is a judicial equivalent of a gubernatorial pardon based on actual innocence," Drizin said.
Jimenez has spent his entire adult life behind bars after being convicted at the age of 13. An Indiana man, Carlos Torres, was charged last month with killing Eric Morro in 1993.
