Johnnie Lee Savory - I’ll never stop fighting

JOHNNIE LEE SAVORY Coalition Seeks DNA Testing For Man Who Insists He’s Innocent of Murders That Occurred When He Was 14 Johnnie Lee SavoryJohnnie Lee Savory (Photo: Jennifer Linzer) CHICAGO - Johnnie Lee Savory, 45, spent two-thirds of his life behind bars for a double murder that he says DNA testing can prove he did not commit. The trouble is that, even though Illinois law guarantees the right to DNA testing when it is relevant to a claim of actual innocence, the courts have denied that right in Savory's case. As a result, Savory is asking Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to order the testing, which would be paid for privately, at no cost to the taxpayers. And today Savory was joined in his quest for DNA testing by a broadly based coalition of supporters — including five former US Attorneys, 30 former prisoners who were exonerated by DNA, authors John Grisham and Studs Terkel, and arrays of business, religious, and civil rights leaders, academics, defense lawyers, and past and present and public officials. Letters signed by the supporters — 212 in all — were released today at a press conference in the offices of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. Lawyers from the Center and the Chicago law firm of Jenner & Block took on the Savory case five years ago at the behest of the late US District Court Judge Prentice H. Marshall, who in retirement had taken an interest in the case and had come to believe that Savory was innocent ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 1m 26s Date Found: Sun, Mar 27 2011 3:26 AM Category: Entertainment Date Produced: Sat, Mar 26 2011 11:15 PM View Count: 0