| On February 26, 2005, 17-year-old Cassidy Green was arrested in North Aurora, Illinois and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
On April 6, 2005, Green pled guilty to the charge in Kane County Circuit Court and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was released on parole on August 26, 2005.
In September 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in People v. Aguilar that the portion of the statute under which Green 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 June 2020, Green, acting without a lawyer, filed a motion to vacate the conviction based on the Aguilar ruling. After the motion was granted on March 19, 2021, Green’s conviction on the weapons charge was vacated, and the case was dismissed.
Green then sought a certificate of innocence. On June 14, 2022, the certificate of innocence was granted.
On June 16, 2022, Green filed a claim with the Illinois Court of Claims seeking compensation.
In September 2022, the prosecution filed a notice of appeal in the Illinois Appellate Court for the Second District, challenging the granting of the certificate of innocence.
– Maurice Possley
|