Perry Cobb

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Charge:	First Degree Murder and Robbery
Sentence:	Death
Years Imprisoned:	10
Year Crime:	1977
Year Convicted:	1979
Year Cleared:	1987
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Illinois
County or Region of Crime:	Cook
City of Crime:	Chicago
Result:	Judicially Exonerated and Later Pardoned
Summary of Case:	"Perry Cobb and his codefendant Darby Tillis (aka Darby Williams) were wrongly convicted in 1979 of first-degree murder and robbery in the death of two men at a Chicago restaurant on November 13, 1977. Both were sentenced to death on October 15, 1979. Cobb and Tillis were implicated in the crime by Phyllis Santini. Santini was given a deal by the prosecution in exchange for her testimony and given $1,200. After their first two trials ended in mistrials because of hung juries, Cobb and Tillis' third trial ended with their convictions. Their convictions were reversed on appeal, and after a fourth trial ended in a hung jury, Lake County, Illinois Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Falconera contacted the lawyers for Cobb and Tillis and told them that he worked in a factory with Santini after he graduated from college but before entering law school, and that Santini told him that she and her boyfriend — Johnny Brown — had robbed a restaurant and shot someone, and that she had made a deal with the prosecution to implicate Cobb and Tillis in the crime in order for her to avoid prosecution. Falconer testified at their fifth trial -- which was a bench trial -- about what Santini told him. Cobb and Tillis were acquitted. In June 2001 Illinois Governor George Ryan granted Cobb and Tillis pardons based on their actual innocence, which enabled them to file claims for compensation from the State of Illinois. The State of Illinois paid $140,000 in compensation in 2003."
Conviction Caused By:	Perjured testimony of the real killer's girlfriend at the instigation of the prosecutor as a way for her to avoid prosecution.
Innocence Proved By:	"Acquitted after their fifth trial, based on the new testimony of a Lake County, Illinois assistant district attorney."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:	"$140,000 (State of Illinois, 2003)"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:
Age When Released:
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:	Black
Information Source 1:	"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, HugoAdam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996 pb ed. with new forward, 295 ( © 1992)."
Information Location 1:
Information Source 2:	Death Penalty Information Center
Information Location 2:	http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html
Information Source 3:	NW School of Law Center on Wrongful Convictions
Information Location 3:	http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/Cobb.htm
Information Source 4:	"People v. Cobb, 97 Ill. 2d 465, 455 N.E.2d 31 (Ill. Supreme Ct. 1983) (Reversing conviction and ordering retrial)"
Information Location 4:	http://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/supreme-court/1983/52944-5.html
Information Source 5:
Information Location 5:
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Perry Cobb

Charge:

First Degree Murder and Robbery

Sentence:

Death

Years Imprisoned:

10

Year Crime:

1977

Year Convicted:

1979

Year Cleared:

1987

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Illinois

County or Region of Crime:

Cook

City of Crime:

Chicago

Result:

Judicially Exonerated and Later Pardoned

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Perjured testimony of the real killer's girlfriend at the instigation of the prosecutor as a way for her to avoid prosecution.

Innocence Proved By:

"Acquitted after their fifth trial, based on the new testimony of a Lake County, Illinois assistant district attorney."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

"$140,000 (State of Illinois, 2003)"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

Age When Released:

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Black

Information Source 1:

"“In Spite of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases,” Michael L Radelet, HugoAdam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1996 pb ed. with new forward, 295 ( © 1992)."

Information Location 1:

Information Source 2:

Death Penalty Information Center

Information Location 2:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Innocentlist.html

Information Source 3:

NW School of Law Center on Wrongful Convictions

Information Location 3:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/Cobb.htm

Information Source 4:

"People v. Cobb, 97 Ill. 2d 465, 455 N.E.2d 31 (Ill. Supreme Ct. 1983) (Reversing conviction and ordering retrial)"

Information Location 4:

http://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/supreme-court/1983/52944-5.html

Information Source 5:

Information Location 5:

Book About Case:

Book Information:

Book About Case (2):

Book Information (2):

Movie About Case:

Comments About Case: