Darby Tillis

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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 Released
Summary of Case:	"Darby Tillis (aka Darby Williams) and his codefendant Perry Cobb 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 4th 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 5th trial -- which was a bench trial -- about what Santini told him. Cobb and Tillis were acquitted. In 2001 Illinois Governor George Ryan granted Cobb and Tillis pardons based on their actual innocence."
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 from State of Illinois"
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	34
Age When Released:	44
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/Tillis.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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Darby Tillis

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 Released

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 from State of Illinois"

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

34

Age When Released:

44

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/Tillis.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: