A federal appellate court says the lawsuit against the city of Peoria filed by a man wrongfully convicted in a 1977 double homicide can sue the city for damages.
Johnnie Lee Savory spent 30 years in prison for the rape and stabbing murder of 19-year-old Connie Cooper and the murder of her 14-year-old brother, James Robinson.
Savory, then 14, said police fabricated evidence, destroyed evidence that would exonerate him, and coerced a false confession from him after a 31-hour interrogation. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison.
Savory was paroled in 2006. Former Gov. Pat Quinn commuted the remainder of Savory's sentence in 2011, and formally pardoned him in 2015.
In 2017, Savory filed a civil suit against the city of Peoria and several police officers. A district court judge ruled Savory waited too long to file suit after his initial parole from prison and dismissed the case.
But the U.S. 7th Court of Appeals ruled the clock to file suit started ticking after Savory's 2015 pardon, not his parole date. Because he filed a lawsuit within two years of his pardon, the appellate judges are allowing his suit to move forward once again.
