Exposing the False Confession Capital of the World

The "Marquette Park Four" were four teenagers (Charles Johnson, Larod Styles, Troshawn McCoy, and LaShawn Ezell) who were wrongfully convicted in 1995 for a double murder and robbery at a Chicago car dealership. They were coerced into confessing by detectives, including James Cassidy, who had a history of questionable confessions from children. No evidence tied them to the crime, and after years of legal battles, they were exonerated and received certificates of innocence.

They walked into prison as teenagers — and walked out decades later into a world that had moved on without them.

This project looks into the story of Troshawn McCoy and Frankie Benitez, who lost over 50 years of their life to wrongful convictions based on now-discredited testimony. They’re among more than 3,400 people exonerated in the United States since 1989, who together lost 31,000 years behind bars.