Clear Tyrone Hood’s name, an innocent man.

After spending 21 years behind bars for a murder I did not commit, I walked out of prison a free man on January 12, 2015, after Illinois Governor Pat Quinn commuted my sentence. But even though I’m free and have proved my innocence to the Governor, I am still a convicted murdered in the eyes of the state of Illinois.

In 1993, when police approached me about the murder of Marshall Morgan Jr., I had no idea my case would be one of many impacted by well documented misconduct inside the Chicago Police Department at the time. Despite having no motive, I was convicted based on witnesses who later complained of police coercion, a lone witness discredited by science, and a set of fingerprints found among discarded rubbish.

My story gained national attention after a 2014 New Yorker article by Nicholas Schmidle exposed growing doubts about the case, including a re-investigation of the case by prosecutors. When the Exoneration Project brought my case before the Governor’s office to petition for clemency, I was joined by advocates all around Chicago, as well as the national Equal Justice Initiative and Alicia Key’s We Are Here Movement, in a plea to see justice done. The plea was granted.

Though I am no longer behind bars, I’m not at liberty to pursue the life I have dreamed of for so long: I’ve got to clear my name. I’ve got to walk free. This ankle monitor that has to be on my leg,–I got to get that off. I feel like I’m still locked up but in a different location. I just have to clear my name, and that is all I need. I’m just trying to get my life back.

After 8 years of investigation, my lawyers believe the real killer in this case is the victim’s father. After only being back in his son’s life for a few months, he took out a life insurance policy and collected over $44,000 after his son’s murder. Two years later he would collect over $100,000 after his then-fiancé was murdered. The two homicides were eerily similar. The father, now behind bars, caught his second murder conviction after the 2001 murder of his fiancé in a crime that fit the pattern he started to establish with his first murder conviction in 1977.

Please sign my petition asking the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to vacate my conviction.

Petitioning Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez

This petition will be delivered to:
Cook County State’s Attorney
Anita Alvarez