“Enough is enough!”: Our Response to Sean & Reginald’s COI Delay
Today, we are writing as a group of individuals who daily witness and experience complex and compounded trauma as a result of state violence and police torture. On Thursday, March 16th, we saw the cases of Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson delayed in the Cook County court system once again. The summary judgment for certificates of innocence was denied and Sean and Reginald will have to endure yet another hearing to try and obtain their certificates of innocence. JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!
In 1994, Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson were arrested and tortured into false confessions for a murder that they did not commit. This was in part an act of retaliation against Sean Tyler for his testimony in support of another torture survivor, Marcus Wiggins. Marcus was tortured at 13 years old and attempted to place charges of a murder he did not commit. Sean, who witnessed this murder, did the right thing and came forward about Wiggins’ innocence. Detectives Boudreau, Halloran, Kill, notorious detectives all trained under Jon Burge, were involved in the Wiggins case, and then came after Sean and Reginald. In 2021, Sean and Reginald were exonerated because the evidence of a pattern and practice of torture was overwhelming. Just a few years later, their mother, who fought tirelessly for their freedom, passed away. They have since been fighting for certificates of innocence to stop having to face the stigma of criminalization in their everyday lives and clear their names.
After this delay on Thursday, Reginald was asked by a reporter, “does it feel like you have chains on you again?” and he replied, “The chains on my hands didn’t allow me to save my mother. The chains on my hands didn’t allow me to work a job without getting kicked off. What are we supposed to do? Us African American men get out here after all these years and you push us back to the same slums to die in! Enough is enough!” Sean and Reginald have endured torture, convictions, decades of incarceration, countless court hearings fighting for their freedom and innocence, and now they are continuing to endure violence by the court system. Every time they have to return to court for these same cases they were wrongfully convicted of as teenagers, they are retraumatized. Instead of righting the wrongs of the past, the state continues to inflict harm when they delay these cases. WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THEM TO BE TRULY FREE?
Though Kim Foxx’s office has made historic strides in exonerations for those framed and tortured by the police, her office has made it possible for the courts to continuously traumatize survivors by challenging certificate of innocence cases. Black men in particular, who have been tortured and framed in Cook County, remain convicted and criminalized at alarming rates. How can someone be innocent enough to be exonerated but not innocent enough to gain a certificate of innocence? Enough is enough!
We demand that Kim Foxx’s office right the wrongs of the past and stop challenging certificate of innocence cases when torture occurred! We stand with Sean and Reginald in their fight for justice! If you would like to support Sean and Reginald please join us on May 4th and 5th at 9am at the Cook County Courthouse for the trial.
