The Dixmoor 5 are five

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

men who, as teenagers in Dixmoor,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, were falsely convicted of the November 1991 rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews. At the time of arrest, the defendants, Robert Taylor, Jonathan Barr, James Harden, Robert Lee Veal and Shainne Sharp were all between the ages of 14 and 16. During high-pressure interviews, three of them gave

false confessions A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogatio ...

leading to convictions for all five. The teens alleged that they were coerced into confessing, claiming they were physically abused and threatened during their interrogations. One of the boys who confessed had an IQ of 56 and developmental disabilities. Two pleaded guilty and testified against the others in exchange for shorter sentences. Both men have since recanted their testimony. Each received at least 80 years in prison. In 2011, DNA tests connected semen on Cateresa to another man, Willie Randolph, a convicted

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a Sex and the law, sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convi ...

who had recently been released on parole. Randolph was later charged on September 1, 2016, for the rape and murder of Cateresa Matthews. A suit filed by the five men alleges police withheld

exculpatory evidence Exculpatory evidence is evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial that exonerates or tends to exonerate the defendant of guilt. It is the opposite of inculpatory evidence, which tends to present guilt. In many countries, includin ...

, including the DNA, from their defense teams. Their convictions were vacated November 3, 2011, and those remaining incarcerated were released. In 2014, they reached a wrongful conviction settlement with the state of Illinois for $40 million, the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history. On August 20, 2024, Jonathan Barr, one of the Dixmoor 5, was shot to death during a mass shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, in the South Side of Chicago. He was 46 years-old.

Notes

People from Chicago Overturned convictions in the United States Quantified groups of defendants American people wrongfully convicted of murder {{US-law-stub

See also

Notes