Skip to content
Overturned

The Ford Heights Four

Year
1978
Where
Illinois
Source
Wikipedia
Evidence
1
What the record says

The Ford Heights Four (Verneal Jimerson, Dennis Williams, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge) were formerly imprisoned convicts, who were falsely accused and convicted of the double murder of Lawrence Lionberg and Carol Schmal in Ford Heights, Illinois, and later exonerated. Jimerson and Williams were sentenced to death, Adams to 75 years in prison and Rainge to life. Following the murder in 1978, the four spent…

Summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Records change. The source is the authority.

Where to start

Got ten minutes? Do one of these.

What evidence was the conviction built on, and what has changed since trial?

  • Write down what the conviction rested on: eyewitness, confession, forensics, informant.
  • Find the court opinion and read what changed after trial.
  • Look for other cases with the same detective, lab or prosecutor.

New to this? Read the field guide. Five short lessons.