 Andree Wright
In September 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in People v. Aguilar that the portion of the statute under which Wright had been convicted was unconstitutional. The statute said that a person committed the offense of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when a person carries a “pistol, revolver, stun gun or taser or other firearm…on his or her person or in any vehicle or concealed on or about his or her person except when on his or her land or his or her abode or fixed place of business…” and the firearm was “uncased, loaded and immediately accessible.”
The court held that portion of the statute violated the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
On February 29, 2016, Wright’s conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed. By then, he had spent 294 days in custody as a result of the conviction.
Acting without a lawyer, Wright filed a motion for a certificate of innocence in St. Clair County Circuit Court. On June 12, 2018, Judge Stephen McGlynn granted the motion and ordered Wright’s record expunged.
Wright then filed a claim for compensation from the state of Illinois. In 2019, he was awarded $52,000.
– Maurice Possley
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