Chicago cousins wrongfully convicted for 1981 killings released from prison

CHICAGO - Two Chicago men who were wrongfully convicted in the 1981 murders of a young couple will be home with their families this holiday season.

James "Jimmy" Soto, 62, and his cousin, David Ayala, 60, served 42 years in prison, even though no physical evidence linked either man to the murders. A judge dropped all the charges against them on Thursday afternoon, and the cousins walked free.

Soto was released from the Stateville Correctional Center on Thursday night.

"I feel excited, elated, exuberant," said Soto. "But a bit of righteous anger, it should not have taken 42 years for this to happen."

Soto and Ayala were convicted almost solely based on coerced witness testimonies, according to their attorneys. They also never confessed to the crimes, and their lawyers say there was egregious police misconduct.

Ayala was tried under an accountability theory for allegedly ordering the shootings, while Soto was tried as one of the shooters in the murders. However, when police officers originally spoke to three key eyewitnesses, they gave officers statements that absolved Soto and pointed to other offenders.

Officers arrested over a dozen people and charged them with murder to coerce statements against the cousins. One of these witnesses revealed that she had pending obstruction charges during her trial testimony, which, along with similar charges against three additional witnesses, had not been disclosed to the defense.

During Soto and Ayala’s post-conviction investigations and hearings, all witnesses who implicated them during the original trial, aside from the admitted perpetrator who testified against them, recanted their accusations.

Soto started his own research, and the Exoneration Project took up their cases and proved corruption.

"We’re very happy that the state agreed to the petitions and agreed that the conviction should be vacated, and then the charges dismissed in the end," said Lauren Myerscough-Mueller with The Exoneration Project.

Jimmy Soto was wrongly arrested in 1981 at just 20 years old and will be leaving prison at age 62, making him the longest-ever wrongfully incarcerated person in the state of Illinois, along with his cousin. While in prison, Soto became an important leader in his community and helped several men get new trials or sentence reductions.

"To have him actually here and for the holiday, and to be able to hug him and kiss him, it’s just amazing, and I’m very grateful to have him now," said Soto's niece, Jazmin Ordonez, at his release.

Soto earned his bachelor's degree this year as part of Northwestern University’s Prison Education Program. At Northwestern, he studied sociology, law, and creative writing. He has written for the Columbia Writing Project and co-authored a paper in the Public Philosophy Journal on ethics in truth-in-sentencing laws. He recently took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) while still incarcerated and hopes to attend law school and advocate for a comprehensive parole system in Illinois.

Ayala was only 18 years old when he was wrongly arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He served 15 of his 42 years of wrongful conviction in Illinois' condemned Tamms Supermax facility under the harshest conditions.