Kenneth Adams

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Charge:	Murder and Rape
Sentence:	75 years
Years Imprisoned:	18
Year Crime:	1978
Year Convicted:	1979
Year Cleared:	1996
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Illinois
County or Region of Crime:	Cook
City of Crime:	Ford Heights
Result:	Judicially Exonerated and Later Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Kenneth Adams was one of the Ford Heights Four wrongly convicted of the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal, and the rape of Schmal."
Conviction Caused By:	"Convicted in part by the false confession of co-defendant Paula Gray. Eyewitness error, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and false expert forensic testimony."
Innocence Proved By:	DNA testing unavailable at the time of the Ford Heights Four convictions.
Defendant Aided By:	Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions
Compensation Awarded:	"$8,140,350 total. $8,000,000 (Cook County, 1999) and $140,350 (State of Illinois, 1997)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?	Yes
Age When Imprisoned:	21
Age When Released:	39
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"Kenneth Adams, Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern School of Law"
Information Location 1:	http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/il/kenneth-adams.html
Information Source 2:	"Ford Heights 4 Offered Huge Settlement, By Robert Becker (staff writer), Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1999"
Information Location 2:	http://www.truthinjustice.org/offer.htm
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Book About Case:	""A Promise of Justice: The eighteen-year fight to save four innocent men," David Protess and Rob Warden, Hyperion, 1998"
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Go to Database Search Page

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Kenneth Adams

Charge:

Murder and Rape

Sentence:

75 years

Years Imprisoned:

18

Year Crime:

1978

Year Convicted:

1979

Year Cleared:

1996

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Illinois

County or Region of Crime:

Cook

City of Crime:

Ford Heights

Result:

Judicially Exonerated and Later Pardoned

Summary of Case:

"Kenneth Adams was one of the Ford Heights Four wrongly convicted of the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal, and the rape of Schmal."

Conviction Caused By:

"Convicted in part by the false confession of co-defendant Paula Gray. Eyewitness error, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and false expert forensic testimony."

Innocence Proved By:

DNA testing unavailable at the time of the Ford Heights Four convictions.

Defendant Aided By:

Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions

Compensation Awarded:

"$8,140,350 total. $8,000,000 (Cook County, 1999) and $140,350 (State of Illinois, 1997)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Yes

Age When Imprisoned:

21

Age When Released:

39

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"Kenneth Adams, Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern School of Law"

Information Location 1:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/il/kenneth-adams.html

Information Source 2:

"Ford Heights 4 Offered Huge Settlement, By Robert Becker (staff writer), Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1999"

Information Location 2:

http://www.truthinjustice.org/offer.htm

Information Source 3:

Information Location 3:

Information Source 4:

Information Location 4:

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

""A Promise of Justice: The eighteen-year fight to save four innocent men," David Protess and Rob Warden, Hyperion, 1998"

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: