The First Judicial Circuit Court of Alexander County, Illinois dismissed murder charges against Danny Davis one year to the day after he walked out of prison after his conviction was overturned. Mr. Davis spent more than 32 years in prison for a crime DNA evidence proves he did not commit. Last year, he returned home after a judge vacated his convictions in the 1992 murder and robbery of a woman in Cairo, Illinois. The woman was stabbed 38 times in her home, where she ran a small neighborhood store selling soda, snacks, and cigarettes.

Days after her death, police wanted to talk to 17-year-old Isaac Davis about the murder based on an unfounded tip. Officers took Isaac and his 20-year old brother Danny in for questioning.

Danny endured many hours of psychological and physical abuse, including police threats that Isaac was going down for the crime. Police also threatened him with the death penalty, telling him, “Your Black ᴀss [is] going to fry.” Fearing for their lives, Danny and Isaac both signed false confession statements implicating themselves and an acquaintance, DeVoe Johnson, in the crime.

With his case going to trial just a few months later and facing the death penalty, Danny was pressured to plead guilty for a life sentence. When he entered his guilty plea in front of the judge, Danny said on the record,  “I just want to live. That’s the only reason I’m pleading to it.”  He was sentenced to life without parole. Isaac also pleaded guilty.

Mr. Johnson went to a bench trial, a trial that does not involve a jury and is conducted by the judge alone. The presiding judge was the same judge who accepted Danny and Isaac’s guilty pleas. The judge found Mr. Johnson not guilty and acquitted him, finding that the confessions  — remarkably the same confessions at the center of Danny and Issac’s convictions — were not credible.

In 2015, the Illinois Innocence Project and Innocence Project jointly took on Danny’s case, with the Exoneration Project later joining the team. In their post-conviction investigation, attorneys litigated for access to evidence for DNA testing and obtained information that had not been turned over to the defense during the original investigation, including critical witness statements and potential alternate suspects who were never investigated. Testing identified male DNA underneath the fingernails of the victim, who tried to fight off her attacker. Danny, Isaac, and Mr. Johnson were all excluded.