State’s Attorney Drops Prosecution of Nationally-Recognized Wrongful Conviction Case
Tyrone Hood Cleared After 21 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
CHICAGO, IL –  The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office today vacated the conviction of Tyrone Hood and co-defendant Wayne Washington, charged with the 1993 murder of a twenty-year-old sophomore at Illinois Institute of Technology.
Mr. Hood, a fifty-one-year-old Chicago native, was sentenced to a total of seventy-five years for the crime, over twenty one of which he served before outgoing Illinois Governor Pat Quinn vacated his sentence on January 12 and he was released from prison.
Hood’s case received extensive coverage in local and national media, including an August 2014 New Yorker magazine feature and National Public Radio “Morning Edition” feature segment. Over 140,000 people joined Hood in asking the State’s Attorney to vacate his conviction on his Change.org petition.
Background
On May 8, 1993 Marshall Morgan, Jr. went missing on the South Side of Chicago. Nine days after Morgan Marshall Jr.’s disappearance, his body was found stuffed in his abandoned Chevy Cavalier. Veteran CPD Area One detectives Kenneth Boudreau and John Halloran, who came up in the Department under the tutelage of alleged torturer Commander Jon Burge, led the homicide investigation.
Tyrone Hood was picked up and interrogated three days after Morgan Jr.’s body was found when Hood’s fingerprints were identified on trash found at the crime scene. After 48 hours of interrogation, Hood continued to maintain his innocence and was released. Hood was again taken into custody and charged after Detectives Boudreau and Halloran received statements from two additional witnesses, and Wayne Washington, the man who would become Hood’s co-defendant. The two additional witnesses would recant their testimony before the trial, citing police coercion. The remaining witness testifying against Hood would be discredited by scientific evidence.
Not only do Hood’s lawyers believe Hood is innocent, they believe the real perpetrator of Morgan Jr.’s murder is Marshall Morgan, Sr., the victim’s father. After unexpectedly returning to his son’s life, Morgan Sr. took out a life insurance policy and collected over $44,000 dollars after his son’s murder. Two years later Morgan Sr. would do the same with his fiancé, Michelle Soto, collecting over a $100,000 dollars after she was found murdered. The murders of Marshall Morgan Jr. and Michelle Soto were almost identical. Both were shot to death and their bodies found wedged between the front and back seats of their cars. Marshall Morgan, Sr. was also convicted of two murders, one in 1977 of his friend William Hall and most recently in 2001 of his then-fiancé Deborah Jackson. Both were shot near their cars and left for dead.
Today’s Events
The Cook County State’s Attorney finished a long-anticipated re-investigation of the case, announcing today that they would vacate the conviction of both defendants. All parole restrictions, including his ankle monitoring and home confinement, will now be lifted for Hood. Hood and his legal team are extremely grateful to the State’s Attorney’s Office for taking this important step toward fully clearing Hood’s name.
Hood is represented by Gayle Horn of the Exoneration Project, and Winston & Strawn LLP associate and former Exoneration Project clinic student, Karl Leonard. Press inquiries should be directed to Exoneration Project Managing Director Eva Nagao at (312) 505-8327 or eva@exonerationproject.org. Co-defendant Wayne Washington, Jr. is represented by Chicago attorney Steve Greenberg.
