Dear Supporters:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K5PKM65ozewQrUxlEso9INLG0iA-qP3K/view?usp=drivesdk. Chicago Tribune Article Published in November

This is the documentary on You tube! Please like and share

2023https://youtu.be/_afBQJADbsY?feature=shared

My name is Michael Harper. I am housed at Western Illinois Correctional Center, located in Mount, Sterling, IL.

I hope after reading this Petiton and the attached Chicago Tribune Article about my continued unjust incarceration, it will prompt you to sign this petition and contact Illinois Governor, Governor Jay Robert Pritzker at: Office of the Governor, James R. Thompson Center, 100 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60601, and ask him to review my clemency petition that has been sitting on his desk since October 4th, 2021.

I have been unjustly incarcerated for over 35 years for a crime I did not commit. My case highlights the dangers of the justice system. In my case, Chicago, Illinois' detectives honed in on me and three of my co-defendants to solve an alleged four-person conspiracy to commit arson (and the resulting deaths of two nearby busniess owners under a felony murder theory) in less than a day. How did these detectives"solve" the crime so quickly? By targeting me and my co-defendants who had nothing to do with the arson. To overcome the total lack of evidence tying me or my co-defendants to the arson, detectives used coercive tactics to force me and two of my alleged co-conspirators to falsely confess-the only individual at refused to sign a false confession, my beloved uncle Albert Harper, who was acquitted after a bench trial.

Given Chicago's dark history with police misconduct and its status as the false confession capital of the United States, these Burge-era Chicago detectives coercing three false confessions is, unfortunately, not SUPRISING. History teaches us that those confessions were false because much of the information that was included in the confessions, including mines, were demonstrably and indisputably made up by e detectives-for example, including in my confession that I burned the video store to collect insurance proceeds when the detectives knew there was no insurance on the store, its contents, or the building theI have maintained my innocence for over 35 years. I was an upstanding small-business owner who had no prior convictions. I was taken advantage of by detectives and coerced into confessing when the heavy-handed detectives threatened to charge my beloved mother with arson and murder (with absolutely no basis to charge her). May my beloved mom continued to rest in peace. In an attempt to save my beloved mother from an arson-murder charge, and knowing that I did not commit the crime and that the physical evidence would show that I was not responsible, I signed the confession the detectives concocted. Of the four alleged co-conspirators, the only one who did not sign a police-concocted false confession, my beloved uncle Albert Harper, who was acquitted after a bench trial. Another, my beloved cousin Geronia Ford (then a teenager) was convicted of assisting with arson, but not the murder and was released after just a couple of years served. The third, Arthur Brown, who was exonerated in 2017 and received an unopposed Certificate of Innocence showing that his incarceration was wrongful and that his conviction was false, was awarded $14.5 million wrongful conviction settlement in June 2023. I am the only person in jail for this alleged four-person conspiracy and am NOT even alleged to be the one who set the fire. In fact, the primary motive that the detectives planted into my "confession" was that I wanted the store and tapes burned to collect insurance money, but it is undisputed that no insurance coverage existed on the building, the business, the tapes, or any other materials therein. This "motive" was planted on me is demonstrably false, as are other alleged "facts" in my coerced confession.

In closing, I thank you in advance for your time, cooperation and your assistance. And, above all, may our awesome God continue to BLESS you.

Chicago Tribune Article link at the top!

Sincerely,

Michael Harper.

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