Life’s no bed of roses for murder convicts after they’re exonerated, Chicago journalist Alison Flowers shows in her new book, Exoneree Diaries.
Flowers investigated potential wrongful conviction cases for Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project from 2011 to 2013. She works at the Invisible Institute, the south-side nonprofit led by Jamie Kalven that has been instrumental in monitoring police misconduct. Exoneree Diaries is based largely on a series of Flowers’s reports for WBEZ in 2013 and 2014.
The three exonerees from Chicago have received nearly $200,000 each from the state of Illinois—the maximum compensation the state offers exonerees who are able to convince a judge that they were factually innocent of all offenses for which they were incarcerated. (Flowers’s fourth subject was convicted in Indiana, a state that offers exonerees no compensation.) Three of Flowers’s subjects also have lawsuits pending.
Alison Flowers speaks Wed 6/8, 7:30 PM Women & Children First 5233 N. Clark 773-769-9299womenandchildrenfirst.com Free
Thu 6/9, 7 PM Anderson’s Bookshop 26 S. La Grange 708-582-6353andersonsbookshop.com Free
