Johnnie Lee Savory

Illinois, August 26, 2013 - Gov. Pat Quinn (pictured above left) signed legislation Monday that aims to prevent false confessions and wrongful convictions. The new legislation expands on previous legislation passed in 2003 that mandated the recording of homicide interrogations. The new requirements will take effect in phases over the next three years, and by June 2016, police will have to record interrogations of people suspected in any of eight violent felonies, including aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated battery with a gun and armed robbery.
Under the new law, courts will presume inadmissible any statement a suspect in one of the specified felonies makes unless the interrogation is either audio- or video-recorded. The first incremental expansion of felonies that must be recorded will happen next June. Among those attending the signing ceremony were CWC Executive Director Rob Warden (pictured above right), Advisory Board member Tom Sullivan of the law firm Jenner & Block LLP, and CWC client Johnnie Lee Savory (pictured above third from left).
More...
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/