The potential appointment of a special prosecutor to look into allegations of wrongdoing by assistant Cook County state’s attorneys who prosecuted Jackie Wilson during his third trial has been delayed until next month.
Wilson, who said he was tortured into confessing to the 1982 murders of two Chicago police officers, was granted a petition for a certificate of innocence Friday after nearly forty years in prison.
During Friday’s hearing, Judge William Hooks said he was sending Wilson’s attorneys’ request for a special prosecutor to investigate possible criminal misconduct by the state’s attorneys office to Chief Criminal Court Judge LeRoy Martin Jr.
Martin, on Monday, then said the decision of appointing a special prosecutor would be passed on to his successor and he or she will take up the matter on Jan. 20.
Martin is headed to the appellate court early next month and said he doesn’t have enough time to go through the proper process of appointing a special prosecutor.
“The process of appointing a special prosecutor is nothing that happens quickly,” Martin said. “I mention that because as you are no doubt aware, my time on this call expires in 13 days, and there are two court holidays within that time period as well. I don’t see me resolving that within that time period.
“With that in mind, this would probably be a more appropriate matter to be resolved by my successor than by me because my successor would of course have the time to go through the process.”
Wilson’s attorneys asked for sanctions against the state’s attorney’s office, accusing the department of trying to cover up Assistant State’s Attorney Nicholas Trutenko’s wrongdoing in Wilson’s cases.
Wilson’s third trial came to a shocking conclusion in October when special prosecutors dropped charges after learning that Trutenko, who prosecuted Wilson’s second trial, lied on the stand when he testified he had never discussed William Coleman — a key witness — with them.
Trutenko was fired after the state’s attorney’s office learned of his perjury allegations.
“We are referring this matter to the appropriate agencies to determine whether any charges will be brought forward,” the state’s attorney’s office had said at the time. “The CCSAO will not be making that decision due to a conflict of interest.”
Contributing: Matthew Hendrickson
