Thursday, November 1, 2012

Illinois man pleads no contest in fatal stabbing, will leave prison after 14 years

With help from the Illinois Innocence Project, a man is expected to leave prison Wednesday after serving 14 years for a murder he's adamantly denied committing.

Anthony Murray, whose last address before prison was in Chicago, pleaded no contest to a charge of a second-degree murder on Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court, allowing him to walk out of jail. The Alford plea means he does not admit guilt, but concedes prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him.

Murray was serving 45 years in prison in the 1998 stabbing of Seneca Jones when he asked for help from the Illinois Innocence Project, which includes students and staff from the University of Illinois Springfield, the Southern Illinois University Law School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law. The team found new evidence pointing to Murray's innocence, Executive Director Larry Golden said.

The Innocence Project case was featured by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on October 30, 2012.

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