STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
After more than 20 years in prison, a Chicago man is free. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn granted requests for clemency on his final day in office. They included clemency for Tyrone Hood. He'd been imprisoned for murder despite doubts about his guilt. Nicholas Schmidle brought fresh attention to this case. He's a writer for The New Yorker who reconstructed the 1993 murder of a popular student athlete.
NICHOLAS SCHMIDLE: He was going out to get a car wash apparently on the Saturday afternoon, and he never came home. His body was found approximately a week later, partially nude in the backseat of his own vehicle with a gunshot to the torso.
INSKEEP: Nicholas Schmidle's article last year showed how police faced pressure to arrest someone.
SCHMIDLE: It was what they call a heater case. And so it drew enormous media attention and pressure to solve the case.
INSKEEP: And where did that pressure lead the police?
SCHMIDLE: To Tyrone Hood. There were a couple of loose bottles that were found in the floor of the car that - Marshall Morgan Jr., the young man who was killed. And these bottles contained fingerprints that, according to the police, were Tyrone Hood's fingerprints.
INSKEEP: And they ended up questioning Tyrone Hood.
SCHMIDLE: They did, and they also questioned a number of other people from the neighborhood. And they all gave very strong statements pointing to Tyrone's guilt.
INSKEEP: Now, the justice system operated here. There was a trial. Tyrone Hood was convicted. What caused you and many other people to think that there was a problem here?
SCHMIDLE: The problems really started on the eve of the trial when Tyrone's attorney discovered that the victim's father had taken out a life insurance policy on the victim shortly before the victim was killed. The victim's father, Marshall Morgan Sr., his fiancee had also just been killed in very similar circumstances. She was found partially nude in the backseat of her own vehicle with gunshot wounds to the torso.
Tyrone's attorney tried to present an argument that Tyrone was not guilty, and the judge dismissed these efforts and said that, you know, he accused him of trying to be Perry Mason or something. Furthermore, in the time between Tyrone's arrest and his conviction and then in the years after, nearly every one of the witnesses who offered statements against Tyrone retracted those statements and said that they had been coerced from one of two detectives who have been associated with a number of false confessions.
INSKEEP: So you wrote this story in 2014. Other people have been advocating for Tyrone Hood. His lawyer then sent a clemency appeal to the outgoing governor of Illinois, mentioning your story, among other things. What happened then?
SCHMIDLE: The appeal was sent in late November. Governor's office deliberated over it, and on Monday, in one of his last acts in office, he commuted Tyrone's sentence.
INSKEEP: Commuted meaning he's not pardoned.
SCHMIDLE: He is not pardoned.
INSKEEP: But he's free.
SCHMIDLE: He is free.
INSKEEP: And Tyrone Hood is on the line with us now to talk about his experience. Mr. Hood, welcome to the program.
TYRONE HOOD: Thank you.
INSKEEP: And congratulations on your release.
HOOD: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Where are you?
HOOD: I'm at my niece house in Dolton, Illinois.
INSKEEP: So what was it like to walk out of the prison on Wednesday afternoon after...
HOOD: Oh, it was a feeling I could never describe.
INSKEEP: Did someone come to your cell and lead you out, and was there processing? What exactly happened?
SCHMIDLE: We need to stop.
HOOD: OK, we need to stop the interview for a minute. My parole officer's here.
INSKEEP: His parole officer. She just arrived at the house. So Mr. Hood stepped away to discuss the terms of his release. We stayed on the line until he was able to come back to describe that feeling of leaving prison.
HOOD: You know, I was so happy that at times, I start getting teary-eyed. I just felt like, at that time, I could just breathe life in me, in and out.
INSKEEP: And for the first time in more than 20 years, Mr. Hood was able to see a range of colors.
HOOD: The colors was very limited - dark blue, light blue shirt, gray as the bars and white ceiling. That was it. So when I seen a color red, I stared at it. I stared at it. It was a machine - pop machine or something - in front of this gas station. I just looked at that machine for a while because of the color red.
INSKEEP: Are you still working to overturn your conviction? You've received clemency, but you're still formally convicted of murder? Is that right?
HOOD: Yes. Yes, I got to because I got to clear my name. I got to walk free. Like, this ankle monitor has to be on my leg. I got to get that off. I feel like I'm still locked up but in another different location. I just got to clear my name. That's all I need, you know, far as - I'm just trying to get my life back.
INSKEEP: Nick Schmidle, what's the process he's going to be going through in the coming days?
SCHMIDLE: Tyrone has a hearing in early February, I believe, on February 9. That is the next hearing in this post-conviction process. The ball right now is in the state's attorney's office. If they determine that they are tired of fighting this or that they want to dismiss the charges at any point, Tyrone will be formally exonerated, and he will not only be a man who has his freedom, but he will be a man who has been determined to have been innocent of the crime that he's currently convicted of.
INSKEEP: That's where you want to get, Tyrone Hood?
HOOD: Yes.
INSKEEP: Was there ever a moment in this more than 20 years when you thought of just giving in, saying, OK, guilty plea. Let's try to get out of this.
HOOD: No. No. No. No. I can't do that. I can never do that. I'm not taking that to my grave and heaven, being in front of God, and he tells me, well, why did you do that? Why did you admit to something you didn't do? Plus, the mother - Marshall Morgan Jr.'s mother - needs justice. She need that.
INSKEEP: Tyrone Hood, is there anything at this moment that you would want to say to the police and the prosecutors who caused you to be imprisoned for two decades?
HOOD: I'm not holding no grudge. I'm not angry at them. This is not going to make me a better man to be angry at them. It's not.
INSKEEP: This may seem like a strange thing to ask, but did you learn anything from spending 20 years in prison?
HOOD: Yeah. I learned to just be patient, be quick to listen and slow to speak, you know. Don't judge nobody.
INSKEEP: Well, Tyrone Hood, thanks very much for taking the time to talk with us.
HOOD: I appreciate sharing what I went through with you.
INSKEEP: Tyrone Hood, at his niece's house in Dolton, Illinois on his second day of freedom. Nicholas Schmidle of The New Yorker wrote about Hood's case last year.