(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago woman who spent 17 1/2 years in prison for a murder she says she did not commit has had her conviction overturned.
Now 47 years old, Madeline Mendoza served out her prison sentence and was freed in 2009.
But all those years she maintained her innocence, and her attorney Joel Flaxman says Mendoza was framed by two corrupt Chicago police detectives.
And Flaxman says now there’s evidence that someone who claimed to be a witness was not and that a jailhouse informant made up a story about what Mendoza told her.
“All the pieces have fallen over, and the truth has finally been confirmed in court,” he said.
Flaxman says for Mendoza, there’s a feeling of being heard, “that the system has recognized this mistake.”
“She’s picking up the pieces and I think looking forward to a new beginning with this off of her record.”
Flaxman says he and Mendoza will be back in court, asking for a certificate of innocence.
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