rrstar.com ROCKFORD — Patrick Pursley, who spent 23 years in prison for the murder of Andy Ascher, was acquitted of the charges on Wednesday after a retrial. Some courtroom spectators burst into applause as Judge Joe McGraw announced his decision, citing concerns about ballistics evidence used during Pursley’s first murder trial. McGraw said prosecutors had “not met their burden” in …

Chicago Tribune When Melissa Calusinski found Benjamin Kingan unresponsive in his bouncy chair at a suburban day care center on Jan. 14, 2009, his death later that day was a mystery. It wasn’t yet clear that it would also become — in the eyes of the law — a murder. It also wasn’t clear that the case would attract national …

clarionledger.com JACKSON, Miss. — A judge ruled Monday that a Mississippi man should spend the rest of his life in prison after the state Supreme Court ordered a review of evidence that he shook an infant to death. Adams County Circuit Judge Forrest Johnson resentenced Jeffrey Havard to life in prison without parole. The move came after Johnson overturned Havard’s …

WIFR OCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) — John Horton, a Rockford man who spent more than 20 years in prison before he was exonerated​, received his certificate of innocence. Judge Joseph McGraw granted the certificate of innocence Monday afternoon, according to a representative from the Exoneration Project. “I thought that once I got exonerated that there was nothing that would top that,” Horton said. …

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Five years after Ryan Ferguson walked out of prison after winning a lengthy court battle for his freedom, Charles Erickson is now asking for his.  Erickson, 34, has filed a petition in Pike County, where his prison is located, that alleges Boone County prosecutors and Columbia police coerced him into confessing to the murder of Columbia Tribune sports editor …

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – On his last day as governor, Eric Greitens commuted sentences and issued pardons in what he said is the ability to make wrong things right. Our news cameras were there when Rodney Lincoln was released from prison after spending more than three decades behind bars for a crime he said he did not commit. Lincoln, 73, said …