John Horton was greeted by about 30 people, including his fiancée, brother, daughter, and grandson. It was the first time the 40-year-old walked out of prison as a free man in more than two decades.
"They organized getting balloons of his favorite color that they all released into the air when he walked out to symbolize the balloons are free, and so was John," said Josh Tepfer, an attorney with the Exoneration Projectat the University of Chicago Law School. "It was a really, really beautiful experience. It was very emotional for all of us."
Tepfer and his students have been working on Horton's case for several years.
Winnebago County
The release comes after a 2016 ruling by the Appellate Court vacating his conviction for the state's failure to disclose exculpatory material.
Tepfer says he and his team found evidence that Horton falsely confessed to the crime at age 17 – and a turning point in the case was a confession from another man in prison.
“And we talked to this man who was in prison for a different murder," Tepfer said, "and we sat there and listened to him confess to us. And it wasn’t just, ‘I did it.’ It was telling the story, an entire narrative, things we had no idea of. We were still fairly new to the case."
That other man is Horton's cousin, Clifton English. He was arrested for a different murder in the course of a restaurant robbery.
According to a news release, Horton falsely confessed to the security guard homicide after hours of police interrogation?, for fear of his own safety and that of his young girlfriend waiting for him at the station.
The news release says English has repeatedly insisted that he is the true perpetrator of the crime.
Tepfer says the next step is Horton facing a possible re-trial.
"And we hope that they see things the way that I think are very clear, that he should not be retried because he’s innocent, and then they can drop the charges," Tepfer said.
- Jenna Dooley contributed to this report.