3 who spent decade in prison acquitted in Rockford retrial

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — Three men freed after more than a decade in prison have been acquitted in their retrial for the 2002 slaying of an 8-year-old Rockford boy.

Winnebago County Chief Judge Joseph McGraw found Tyjuan Anderson, Lumont Johnson and Anthony Ross not guilty in the shooting death of DeMarcus Hanson. The boy was asleep in his grandmother’s house when gunfire through a window struck him in the head.

The three defendants originally were convicted of the boy’s death and sentenced to 50-year prison terms. McGraw overturned their convictions and ordered new trials in 2013 after doubts emerged about a key witness.

Johnson and Ross earlier this year sued the city of Rockford and several current and former police detectives, seeking damages for “physical injury and sickness and emotional pain and suffering.”

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