Jailed Chicago man freed by DNA evidence faces new murder charge

[June 14, 2014]  By Mary Wisniewski
 
 CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chicago man who served almost 32 years in prison for murder and rape before being exonerated by DNA evidence has been charged with murder in another case, officials said on Friday.

Andre Davis, 53, was charged with murder and kidnapping in connection with the death of a 19-year-old man after a fight at a party last October, Cook County State's Attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said on Friday.

Davis is accused of helping an unknown person kill the victim, Jamal Harmon, whose body was put into the trunk of a car and removed from the site, Simonton said. Harmon suffered gunshot and stab wounds.

He had been serving time for the 1980 killing of 3-year-old girl in downstate Rantoul, Illinois, and was exonerated in 2012 after tests revealed that DNA found on the victim did not match Davis' DNA.

Davis was in prison longer than any other Illinois inmate who was later exonerated by DNA testing, according to the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of law, which represented him.

Davis was ordered held without bond on Thursday. He was scheduled to appear in court on July 1 on the murder charge.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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