He nailed himself to a cross to dramatize being crucified
Marcus Lyons (Photo: Jennifer Linzer)
After a woman was raped in an apartment complex in Woodridge, Illinois, on November 30, 1987, two neighbors said a police sketch resembled Marcus Lyons, the only African-American living there.
The victim identified Lyons as her attacker. He owned pants and a jacket similar to what the 29-year-old victim said her attacker had been wearing. He was, she said, an African-American with a large belly and hips and weighing about 200 pounds. Lyons was slim, 35 pounds lighter than the victim’s description, the pants (size 32) could not have fit a 200-pound man, and the jacket did not have a burn hole or a fur collar that the victim described. The victim, police, prosecutors, and the jury ignored the discrepancies.
Lyons, a 29-year-old Navy veteran and member of the naval reserve with no previous police record, was arrested, convicted, and served three years of a six-year term before being released.
He spent much of the next 16 years seeking justice, including an attempt to nail himself to a cross at the Wheaton, Illinois, courthouse to dramatize his belief he had been crucified by county officials.
In 2006 DNA evidence proved his innocence. The next year, a court vacated his conviction, dismissed all charges against him, and he filed a petition for a pardon based on innocence, which Governor Rod Blagojevich granted on December 19, 2008.— Researched by Rob Warden
Sources: Chi Trib, Sept 20, Oct. 22, 2007, Sept 6, Oct 14, Dec 20, 2008, Lyons petition for executive clemency.
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