Word: nicarico
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...kind of crime that breaks a community's heart. Ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, home from school with a cold, was taken from her suburban Chicago house in broad daylight, raped and killed. Her badly beaten body was discovered two days later in a wooded area six miles away. The public demanded that the murder be solved, and the police obliged. Du Page County residents slept a little better after police arrested Rolando Cruz, a street tough from a nearby town. Local prosecutors finished the job, presenting a solid case that landed Cruz on Illinois' death...
...only trouble was that Cruz didn't kill Jeanine Nicarico. A sheriff's officer later admitted that he testified inaccurately about a key piece of evidence used at Cruz's trial. Cruz was freed in 1995, after 11 years in jail. Another man--a convicted murderer and rapist whose earlier confession to the murder had been ignored--was linked to the crime by DNA. After an independent investigation, seven prosecutors and law-enforcement officials were indicted on charges of fabricating and suppressing evidence to frame Cruz...
...cite just one example, Rolando Cruz and another Chicago man were sentenced to death for the 1983 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. The prosecution based its case on a "vision statement" from Cruz--a dream about the murder he'd allegedly recounted to police. The conviction was overturned, and Cruz was retried in 1990, but another man--who had actually confessed to the crime--was not allowed to testify, and Cruz was convicted on the same dream evidence. In 1994 the state Supreme Court overturned Cruz's second conviction, and the government began preparations...