Chicago man, Kevin Jackson, receives second look at his murder conviction after proclaiming innocence from start
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After more than two decades in prison for a crime he has insisted all along that he didn't commit, Kevin Jackson's case received a game-changing second look.
But that didn't happen until a possible conflict of interest was revealed between a Chicago Police detective and an employee in the prosecutor's office. As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported Wednesday night, Jackson's future isn't the only one at stake.
"It's vivid. I was looking down the barrel of Brian Forberg's gun, telling me to get out the car," said Jackson. "I didn't even think it was possible, just because like being wrongfully arrested. So, I'm thinking I will get to the station, and thinking it's going to be all right."
But June 19, 2001, was when then-19-year-old Kevin Jackson's life shattered. Now 42, he has had plenty of time to contemplate the broken pieces – like missing out on starting a family.
"I would've been pretty good at changing diapers," Jackson said.
As Hickey interviewed Jackson via Zoom, it didn't take long for her to realize he has never held a smartphone. He was also quite puzzled by computers and contemporary video recording methods.
But he has always insisted he had nothing to do with the May 2001 early-morning murder of a man named Ernest Jenkins at a Citgo gas station on the corner of Damen Avenue and Garfield Boulevard on the cusp of the Back of the Yards and West Englewood communities.
Jackson still gets choked up thinking about how hard one detective — then-Chicago Police Detective Brian Forberg — and his partner pressured him to confess.
"I'm not confessing to nothing that I didn't do," Jackson said.
There was never any evidence even placing Jackson at the scene.
"In fact, a surviving victim said that he was not the man who shot him," said Brandon Clark of Saul Ewing LLP, Jackson's attorney.
Clark is adamant.
"If I'm wrong, I'll trade places with him," Clark said. "I know he's innocent."
Attorney Elizabeth Bacon, of the firm Brooks, Tarulis & Tibble LLC, has also devoted the better part of a decade to representing Jackson.
"The evidence in this case is so egregious that people find it hard to believe," she said.
The problem was that four witnesses signed statements written by the detectives pointing the finger at Jackson – including his own cousin, Manuel Stewart, who later recanted.
Stewart said police beat him and terrorized him into signing the statement.
And he wasn't the only one. At trial, every single witness recanted his or her written statements – claiming they were the product of severe police intimidation.
But Jackson was convicted, and sentenced to 45 years.
Unfortunately, Detective Forberg in particular has developed a reputation.
The decorated CPD sergeant has been accused of witness coercion in several lawsuits and pending appeals.
And Jackson is one of about 20 current and former inmates — primarily Black men — who also claim the officer coerced and manipulated witnesses into lying.
Their families have rallied in recent months — calling on the Cook County States Attorney's office to re-investigate Officer Forberg's cases, including Jackson's.
The Cook County States Attorney's Office's Conviction Integrity Unit — or CIU — reviewed Jackson's case in 2019. Despite Jackson's attorneys raising new evidence of his innocence – and the issues about police misconduct and intimidation – his case was passed over.
"It didn't make sense now," Jackson said. "I always used to wonder like, what's going on, like, how could they continue to deny me?"
Then, determined to find out why, Jackson's attorneys kept digging – and came across something that absolutely stunned them.
They learned that Detective Forberg was married to an assistant Cook County state's attorney working in the Conviction Integrity Unit at the same time Jackson's case was under review. This fact was never disclosed.
"To suggest that a husband-and-wife team – one being the officer who's accused of misconduct and the other being an attorney who's going to oversee those allegations and investigate them – that that's not a conflict of interest?" said Clark. "It's laughable."
"So I ain't have a chance," Jackson said. "I ain't have a chance – at all."
While Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office did not agree there was a conflict at all in this case, they did decide to appoint a special assistant state's attorney to conduct an exhaustive review of Jackson's case.
The result was that while prosecutors wouldn't produce the full report, two forensics experts and a polygraph expert found significant flaws in CPD's investigation – so much so that his attorneys received a call from Foxx's office earlier this month instructing them to file a new motion to overturn Jackson's conviction, and this time, they wouldn't oppose it.
Jackson got the news right before our interview.
"They're amazing," Jackson said. "They believed in me every day."
Hickey met attorneys Clark and Bacon at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse when they filed the new motion to vacate the conviction.
"Very anxious, still. We're not going to stop fighting till Kevin is actually out and home with his family," said Clark. "But today's a good day."
Jackson's sister and cousin met us at Criminal Court too.
"I was 12 years old. I'm 32 now," said Kevin Jackson's sister, Lakisha Jackson. "He inspires me to do my best every day. And he tells me all the time, 'Lakisha, anger is not OK.' I'm going to overcome this. And I believe it now."
Jackson is continuing to wait – hoping this means his projected release in 2046 will come much sooner than that.
"I'm still floating right now," he said. "I still don't believe it."
And he is hopeful his case will help others finally get a second look too.
Five days after we first reached out to the Cook County State's Attorney's office and the Chicago Police Department about the misconduct allegations against Sgt. Forberg and the alleged conflict of interest with his wife, who has since passed away, we learned that Sgt. Forberg retired. That was effective Oct. 10.
On Dec. 6, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office announced it was replacing the prosecutor at the head of the Conviction Integrity Unity and completely rebranding.
"The establishment of the Conviction Review Unit is not just a name change; it represents a shift in our approach toward rectifying the wrongs of the past, ensuring fairness in our justice system, and incorporating community voices in our decisions," State's Attorney Foxx said in a statement.
Forberg, when reached by phone, declined to comment for this story. CPD also declined, only confirming that Forberg has retired.
The Cook County States Attorney' office also did not comment on the conflict of interest. A spokesperson said they are "continuing to review claims of wrongful conviction on a case-by-case basis."
Meanwhile, in a hearing Tuesday before Cook County Judge Erica Reddick on the unopposed motion to vacate Jackson's conviction, prosecutors requested and then dismissed their own motion on for a special prosecutor. The case then went back to Judge Angela Munari Petrone.
Despite both the prosecution and Jackson's defense team being in agreement on the motion to vacate Jackson's conviction, Judge Petrone continued the case to Jan. 3.
There is still the matter of a lengthy report on the recent reinvestigation of Jackson's case conducted by Special Assistant States Attorneys Thomas Geraghty and Robert Owen. The full report has never been released to Jackson's attorneys or the media.
But we know that individual reports produced by that investigation from two forensics experts and a polygraph expert found significant flaws in CPD's investigation.
On Tuesday night, prosecutors finally produced the report to Jackson's attorneys with significant redactions. The portions that were unredacted were of little value. Judge Petrone was upset by the level of redaction and ordered that full report be produced for her review of this case.
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