| On June 28, 2012, 23-year-old Demetrius Hymon was arrested in Chicago, Illinois and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a firearm.
On July 5, 2012, Hymon pled guilty in Cook County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
In September 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in People v. Aguilar that the portion of the statute under which Hymon 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 on or about his person or in any vehicle or concealed on or about his person except when on his land or in his abode or fixed place of business any pistol, revolver, stun gun or taser or other firearm and the firearm is uncased, loaded and immediately accessible.”
The court held that this portion of the statute violated the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
In 2020, Hymon, acting without a lawyer, filed a motion to vacate his conviction based on the Aguilar ruling. After the motion was granted, Hymon’s conviction was vacated, and the charge was dismissed.
Hymon then filed a motion for a certificate of innocence. On September 28, 2020, the motion was granted. Hymon filed a claim with the Illinois Court of Claims seeking compensation. In March 2021, the court of claims awarded him $50,000.
– Maurice Possley
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