The Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, based at the University of Illinois Springfield, had a role in the exoneration of a 30-year-old Aurora man who had been imprisoned 12 years for a murder he didn’t commit.
Jonathan Moore walked free following a hearing in Kane County Circuit Court on Tuesday. His exoneration was a cooperative effort among the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, the Kane County state’s attorney’s office and Aurora police.
Moore was convicted in 2002 of killing 20-year-old Shawn Miller and the attempted murder of a second man during a shooting in front of an Aurora coin laundry in 2000. He was sentenced to 76 years in prison.
In the ensuing years, a witness came forward that prompted the Aurora Police Department to start a new investigation of the case. That investigation produced numerous other witnesses and evidence pointing to another person, said John Hanlon, legal director of the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, which is at the University of Illinois Springfield.
The case was featured in an March 8, 2012, article in The State Journal-Register.
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