DEATH ROW INMATE RONALD JONES EXONERATED
Ronald Jones Becomes the 12th Person Exonerated After Serving on Illinois Death Row
Ronald Jones was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a woman in an abandoned building on the south side of Chicago. When DNA testing showed that the seminal material recovered from the victim could not have originated from Jones, the Illinois Supreme Court vacated his conviction and death sentence and remanded Jones's case to the Circuit Court of Cook County for a new trial. MacArthur Justice Center attorney Locke Bowman teamed with attorneys Richard Cunningham, Barry Scheck, Matthew Kennelly, and Lawrence Marshall to form the defense group. After several months of pretrial maneuvering, the attorneys achieved Ronald Jones's exoneration when the Cook County State's Attorney formally dropped the charges against him.
