Man Granted Retrial After 26 Years Behind Bars

Confession of actual gunman finally released after his death
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 19, 2008 6:23 AM CDT
Man Granted Retrial After 26 Years Behind Bars
Family members of Alton Logan, Pauline Buccanan, left, Janet Logan and Eugene Logan cry as he leaves Cook County Jail after a Cook County judge ordered a retrial.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Alton Logan tasted freedom yesterday for the first time in 26 years after being granted a new trial, reports the Chicago Tribune. The Illinois man was locked up in 1982 for killing a security guard. Another man confessed to the killings but his attorneys, prevented from coming forward by attorney-client privilege, did not reveal the confession until the man died last year.

Logan is now free on bail after the judge decided there was "a reasonable probability" he would be acquitted if prosecutors tried him again for the crime. "He's not been exonerated yet, but it will happen," said his brother. Logan, tears streaming down his cheeks, told reporters he was doing "fine" and left the prison grounds with his family. (More prison stories.)

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