Chicago man to be released from prison after a new look at his murder conviction

By Megan Hickey

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — After more than 23 years in prison, Kevin Jackson is about to be a free man.

Jackson will be released from a prison downstate on Tuesday morning. The CBS News Chicago Investigators have been exposing Jackson’s case for nearly a year.

Jackson’s family said his release will be just the beginning. They spoke in disbelief Monday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse.

Family members have only seen Jackson through glass since he was arrested in a 2001 murder at a Southwest Side gas station.

Jackson has always insisted he had nothing to do with the May 2001 early-morning murder of a man named Ernest Jenkins at a Citgo gas station on the corner of Damen Avenue and Garfield Boulevard on the cusp of the Back of the Yards and West Englewood communities.

He talked about how hard one detective — then-Chicago Police Detective Brian Forberg — and his partner pressured him to confess.

“I’m not going to confess to nothing I didn’t do,” he told CBS News Chicago in an interview in December of last year.

But Jackson was convicted of the murder in 2003 and originally sentenced to 45 years in prison. Ever since then, his family has only ever seen him during visits where he’s behind glass.

“We’re just very happy,” said Jackson’s sister, Lakisha Jackson. “We’re not bitter. We’re not bitter at all. We’re not.”

On Monday, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Angela Petrone spent nearly 20 minutes explaining why she originally declined to sign a motion to overturn Jackson’s conviction in June—even though the defense and prosecutors both agreed that he should go free.

Judge Petrone eventually approved Jackson’s release, effective Monday, thanks to an order from the First District Appellate Court.

“Less than 24 hours after our oral argument on Tuesday, they issued an order demanding his immediate release,” said Elizabeth Bacon, Jackson’s attorney.

Bacon and attorney Brandon Clark have been fighting for Jackson’s release for the better part of a decade.

Jackson’s case received a second look last year in part because it was Detective Forberg, who worked on the case, was married a prosecutor working in the unit that passed over Jackson’s wrongful conviction claim.

A special assistant state’s attorney conducted a 13-month reinvestigation, which found significant flaws in the case. All four witnesses recanted, and surviving victims said Jackson didn’t do it.

“This is absolutely the right result,” Bacon said. “The Illinois court system finally heard Kevins Jackson’s voice after 23 years, and we really credit the First District for getting it right this time.”

Jackson’s case is important because he is one of about 20 current and former inmates—primarily Black men—who also claim the Detective Forberg coerced and manipulated witnesses into lying.

“We’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing for everybody,” said Lakisha Jackson. “We’re not just going to stop right here.”

“We hope that continues with the other Forberg victims after he’s released,” said Forberg. “We’re aware of quite a few, and hope that they have their day someday soon too.”

Jackson will be on electronic monitoring pending appeal on the decision in his case, and on a written decision from the First District Court. His attorneys feel very confident that ruling wipe out his conviction, and he will finally truly be a free man.

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