{"id":52576,"date":"2025-11-26T05:21:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52576\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T05:21:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:21:22","slug":"illinois-man-finally-exonerated-after-spending-more-than-30-years-in-prison-for-murder-he-didnt-commit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52576\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois man finally exonerated after spending more than 30 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something to be thankful for. <\/p>\n

An Illinois man who spent more than three decades behind bars for a murder he didn\u2019t commit was finally exonerated this month just in time for Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n

In March 1992, a 20-year-old Danny Davis was pressured into pleading guilty to the murder of Mildred Smith, who was found brutally stabbed to death in her apartment in Cairo, Illinois earlier that year, according to a news release from the Innocence Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ADanny Davis, 53, was fully exonerated in November, more than 30 years after he was sentenced to life in prison. The Exonoration Project<\/p>\n

Danny and his brother, then-17-year-old Isaac Davis, were both taken in for questioning \u201cbased on an unfounded tip,\u201d according to the release. <\/p>\n

From there, the brothers were subjected to \u201cmany hours of psychological and physical abuse,\u201d including specific threats directed towards Danny about Isaac\u2019s alleged culpability. <\/p>\n

Danny\u2019s attorney, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, told CBS News<\/a> that there was \u201cnothing else to tie them\u201d to the murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no forensics tying them to the crime, no eyewitnesses, nothing like that,\u201d Myerscough-Mueller told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018If you go to trial, Danny will get the death penalty, and he will die.\u2019 So they were at jury selection, they pull him into a room, they threaten them with this, and so they say, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ll plead guilty,’\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

One of the brothers\u2019 acquaintances, DeVoe Johnson, was also implicated in the crime through their respective confession statements. Johnson had a separate bench trial where he was found not guilty after the judge determined the Davises\u2019 confessions \u201cwere not credible,\u201d according to the release.<\/p>\n

Danny was sentenced to life in prison without parole. His legal team pressed on, with later support from nonprofits like the Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Smith\u2019s fingernail clippings were tested for DNA. Male DNA was found, but it didn\u2019t match Danny or Isaac.<\/p>\n

\"DannyDanny is set to celebrate his first Thanksgiving as a truly free man on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Danny\u2019s conviction was then vacated and he was released from custody last November, but a retrial still loomed over his head as his full exoneration dragged on.<\/p>\n

The retrial was supposed to start in December, but prosecutors abandoned the case earlier this month without any explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we would be here at this point one day. We didn\u2019t know how long. Man, it\u2019s just a blessing that I don\u2019t have to go through that,\u201d Danny told the outlet.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Danny celebrated his lasting exoneration during a night out at Michael Jordan\u2019s Steak House in Chicago. The NBA legend is Danny\u2019s favorite player, and he told the outlet he consistently followed Jordan\u2019s journey while he was behind bars.<\/p>\n

Danny, now 53, is eager to start indulging in simple joys like holidays again \u2014 including his first Thanksgiving as a truly free man this Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, I just said all holidays are out, and focused on what needs to be done for me to get out,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

Isaac was freed from prison before Danny, according to a release from the Illinois Innocence Project<\/a>. The exact details of his sentence and time served are unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something to be thankful for. An Illinois man who spent more than three decades behind bars for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29092,5350,29093,238,9,11,10,4719,6967,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-52576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-exoneration","9":"tag-illinois","10":"tag-innocence-project","11":"tag-murders","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-prisons","16":"tag-thanksgiving","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}