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Criminal charges dropped against Chicago man wrongly convicted of murder

By FOX 32 News
Published  September 26, 2023 4:32pm CDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 32 Chicago

Charges dropped against Chicago man wrongfully imprisoned in 1989 murder

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Francisco Benitez, finally exonerating him after he spent 34 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

CHICAGO - All criminal charges have been dropped against a man who spent more than 12,000 days behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

Francisco Benitez is a completely free man now.

Benitez, affectionately called ‘Frankie,' walked out of the Cook County Jail last month. He had been in prison since he was 18 and was sentenced to life for a murder he didn't commit. 

Earlier this year, a hearing was held, and evidence was presented to prove that Benitez was innocent.

At the center of the case were two Chicago police detectives, Jerome Bogucki and Raymond Schalk. 

The pair have been at the center of two other murder cases that fell apart based on evidence that the detectives coerced witnesses and fabricated evidence.