A special event will take place in Springfield on Monday, May 24, when exoneree Rolando Cruz comes to Springfield to recognize those who helped free him almost 15 years ago.
In 1983, 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico was kidnapped from her Naperville home in the middle of the day, taken to a nearby wooded location and brutally killed. But despite the tragedy of the killing and the injustice of the wrongful convictions that followed, there are stories that don’t get told very often of those who, at great personal cost, pursued justice.
Mary Brigid Hayes, Ed Cisowski and John Sam will be formerly recognized and thanked by Rolando Cruz with “Profiles in Courage” Awards Monday evening, May 24, 5-7 p.m. at the Executive Mansion at an awards reception sponsored by the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield. Reservations can be made by calling 206-7989 or at www.innocence.uis.edu.
The event was featured in an article written by Larry Golden, emeritus professor of political studies and legal studies at UIS and the director of the Innocence Project. It was published in a May 20, 2010, edition of the Illinois Times.
Download a PDF of the article
