|
Wrongly Convicted Database Record
|
Charge: |
Felony Murder First-Degree |
Sentence: |
60 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
6.67 |
Year Crime: |
2008 |
Year Convicted: |
2009 |
Year Cleared: |
2015 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Illinois |
County or Region of Crime: |
Champaign |
City of Crime: |
Urbana |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Juvon F. Mays was wrongly convicted in September 2009 of first-degree felony murder and home invasion in the shooting death of Corinthian “Shun” Spinks in his apartment in Rantoul, Illinois on December 20, 2008. Juvon Mays was arrested in early 2009 and held in custody. The prosecution's case was based on the testimony of two witnesses who identified Mays as being in the building where Spinks was shot, and inconclusive DNA tests of the ski mask and a glove worn by the shooter couldn't rule out Mays as the source of DNA. After his conviction by a jury Mays was sentenced to 60 years. On November 15, 2011 the Illinois Court of Appeals, 4th Dist., affirmed Mays' convictions. On March 28, 2012 the Illinois Supreme Court directed the appeals court to address the merits of Mays' ineffective assistance of counsel claims. On August 30, 2012 the appeals court remanded Mays' case to the trial court for consideration of his ineffective assistance of counsel claims. In 2014 Mays' conviction was reversed and a retrial ordered by the Illinois Court of Appeal based on the ineffectiveness of his then-attorney, G. Ronald Kesinger. In January 2013 Kesinger was suspended for six months by the Illinois Supreme Court over his misconduct in Mays' case of violating attorney-client privilege, and improperly trying to enrich himself in another case. Juvon Mays was 34 when acquitted by a jury on October 22, 2015 after his retrial. On May 17, 2016 Mays was arrested related to the non-fatal shooting of a man several days earlier in Champaign, Illinois. A search of the house where Mays and four other men were arrested -- which wasn't where Mays lived -- found marijuana in one bedroom and heroin in another bedroom. Also, a search of the area found heroin was outside under a car, and one gun was found behind a house several houses away from the house that was searched, and two guns were found near a garage for the house. Charges were filed against Mays related to the guns and the drugs, but he wasn't charged with the shooting, During Mays' trial fingerprints or DNA evidence linked him to either the guns or any of the drugs, and no prosecution evidence placed Mays was in either bedroom. On November 16, 2016 a jury acquitted Mays of being a an armed habitual criminal, but it did find him guilty of possession with intent to deliver both heroin and cannabis. Mays filed a post-verdict motion that resulted in dismissal of his heroin conviction. Mays was sentenced on March 23, 2017 to 2 years under DOC custody for his cannabis conviction, with credit for time served from his arrest. On May 12, 2017 he was released on parole, with a projected discharge date of May 12, 2018. (Per Ill. DOC website, last viewed Sept. 20, 2017.)" |
Conviction Caused By: |
Ineffective assistance of counsel. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"Mays was acquitted by a jury on October 22, 2015 after his retrial." |
Defendant Aided By: |
|
Compensation Awarded: |
|
Was Perpetrator Identified? |
|
Age When Imprisoned: |
28 |
Age When Released: |
34 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
Black |
Information Source 1: |
"People v. Mays, 2014 IL App (4th) 130419 (Ill. App. Ct. 2014) (Reversing conviction based on ineffective assistance of counsel and remanding for retrial.)" |
Information Location 1: |
https://casetext.com/case/people-v-mays-102 |
Information Source 2: |
"Man acquitted in murder retrial, By Mary Schenk (Staff writer), The News-Gazette (Champaign/Urbana, Illinois), October 22, 2015" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-10-22/man-acquitted-murder-retrial.html |
Information Source 3: |
"Jacksonville attorney suspended for misconduct, By Chris Dettro (Staff), The State Journal-Register, January 23, 2013" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.sj-r.com/article/20130123/NEWS/301239783 |
Information Source 4: |
"Found innocent of Rantoul murder, Champaign man arrested after shooting, Mary Schenk (Staff), Rantoul Press, May 18, 2016" |
Information Location 4: |
http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2016-05-18/found-innocent-rantoul-murder-champaign-man-arrested-after-sh |
Information Source 5: |
"Champaign's Mays acquitted on gun possession, convicted on drug charge, By Mary Schenk, The News-Gazette, November 16, 2016" |
Information Location 5: |
http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2016-05-18/found-innocent-rantoul-murder-champaign-man-arrested-after-sh |
Book About Case: |
|
Book Information: |
|
Book About Case (2): |
|
Book Information (2): |
|
Movie About Case: |
|
Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org