Condemned Man Gets 3rd Trial; Other Admitted Rape, Murder

Rolando Cruz was convicted twice and spent more than seven years on Death Row for a rape and murder another man admitted committing. His case became a cause; law school deans rallied to his side and a prosecutor resigned rather than “help execute an innocent man.”

The tangled case took a new turn Thursday when the Illinois Supreme Court reversed a decision it made less than two years ago and granted Cruz a third trial.

Cruz’s wife, Nicole, hugged his attorney, Northwestern University law professor Lawrence Marshall, outside the Supreme Court offices after the decision was announced.

“Rolando Cruz has lived in hell for many, many years and it is our intent to get him out of that,” Marshall said.

The court, in a 4-3 ruling, decided that the judge in Cruz’s most recent trial improperly excluded evidence about the criminal history of Brian Dugan, the man who admitted to the killing but who has never been charged. Dugan is serving life in prison for another murder.

Cruz and another man, Alejandro Hernandez, were convicted in 1985 of the rape and murder of Jeanine Nicarico. The 10-year-old girl was home sick from school in the suburb of Naperville, west of Chicago, when she was abducted.

Cruz and Hernandez maintained their innocence, and the state Supreme Court overturned their convictions in 1988. They were convicted again at a second trial despite testimony about Dugan’s admission.

Dugan refused to confess in court unless prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors refused to accept his offer or believe his story, citing inconsistencies in his account and saying that details he provided of the crime could have been gleaned from news accounts.

In 1992, doubts about the case prompted the resignation of Mary Brigid Kenney, an assistant state attorney general assigned to fight Cruz’s appeals. She said in her resignation: “I realized that I was being asked to help execute an innocent man.”

Later that same year, the state Supreme Court voted, 4 to 3, to deny Cruz a new trial. But three new justices have joined the court, and last year it voted to reconsider. In Thursday’s ruling, two of the new justices voted with the majority.