Mistaken identification, belated alibi
Will Evans, a twenty-seven-year-old African American, was convicted in 1912 of an attempted rape the previous year in Pulaski County. The conviction rested on the identification testimony of the victim, Laura Johnson, an African American woman in her thirties.
At the time of the alleged rape attempt, Evans had been twenty-five miles away in neighboring Alexander County committing a different crime — a less serious one, but one for which he would face prison time. Apparently thinking that he would not be convicted of a crime he did not commit, Evans did not reveal the alibi at his trial before Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Webster W. Duncan and an all-white jury. The jury deliberated only minutes before finding Evans guilty, and Duncan sentenced him to ninety-nine years in prison.
Immediately after sentencing, Evans revealed his alibi to his court-appointed attorney. Within days, the alibi was corroborated by a sworn statement of Martin S. Egan, the police chief of Cairo in neighboring Alexander County. Egan had interrupted a railcar burglary committed by Evans and his brother at the precise time of the attempted rape in Pulaski County.
Judge Duncan held that the exculpatory evidence came too late and let the verdict stand. He later summed up his view in a letter to the Illinois Board of Pardons and Paroles stating that Evans was "probably in prison rightfully, but upon the wrong charge.?
Evans remained in prison until 1932, when Illinois Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson finally granted a pardon, acknowledging that Evans "had been the victim of mistaken identity. — Rob Warden
