Chicago prosecutors exonerate 15 men framed by police

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Cook County prosecutors tossed the convictions Thursday of 15 men who were framed by a corrupt group Chicago police officers.

"As far as we're aware, there has not been anything like this [in Cook County' when it comes to vacating convictions and dismissing the cases," Maurice Possley, a senior researcher at the University of Michigan's National Registry of Exonerations project, told WTTW.

The 15 men were framed for drug convictions between 2003 and 2008 by a police crew led by former Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison back in 2013 for stealing money from a suspected drug dealer who turned out to be an FBI informant involved in an undercover sting and led to the unraveling of the scheme.

Seven other officers suspected of being involved in Watts' framing of innocent men are still on the force because they have not been convicted of a crime.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/11/16/Chicago-prosecutors-exonerate-15-men-framed-by-police/9361510891465/