Wrongly Convicted Database Record

 

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William E. Carini

 

Charge:

Sexual Assault (includes aggravated)

Sentence:

26 years

Years Imprisoned:

25

Year Crime:

1991

Year Convicted:

1992

Year Cleared:

2017

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Illinois

County or Region of Crime:

Lake

City of Crime:

Gurnee

Result:

Judicially Exonerated (Not released due to other charges.)

Summary of Case:

"William E. Carini was wrongly convicted in 1992 of two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon in the rape of a woman near Gurnee, Illinois in 1991. Carini's prosecution was based on the woman's identification. She had fallen asleep in her car on the shoulder of the Tri-State Tollway, and was awoken by the assault. After his conviction by a jury William Carini was sentenced on April 6, 1992 to 26 years in prison -- 20 years for one count and 6 years for the other to be served consecutively. A post-conviction investigation of Carini's case by the Lake County State's Attorney's Office found from forensic testing that none of the physical evidence collected in the rape case matched Carini. Based on the new exculpatory forensic evidence Carini's conviction was overturned on January 3, 2017, and Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim announced he would not retry Carini. Carini remained imprisoned to serve life sentences for his unrelated convictions related to the 1985 murders of his uncle John Kuba and childhood friend Joanne Seaquist in Cook County, Illinois. He was charged with those crimes in 1999 while imprisoned for his sexual assault conviction, and he was convicted in 2002. As of January 2017 Carini is appealing those convictions."

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"Based on the new exculpatory forensic evidence William Carini's conviction was overturned on January 3, 2017, and Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim announced he would not retry Carini."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

29

Age When Released:

54

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

White

Information Source 1:

"Man cleared in 1991 rape, joining other questionable Lake County prosecutions, By Tony Briscoe, Chicago Tribune, January 3, 2017"

Information Location 1:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lake-county-rape-conviction-vacated-met-20170103-story.html

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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org

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