 https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/PublishingImages/Cook_County_seal.jpg
On June 23, 2003, Fuller pled guilty to the charge in Cook County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to one year on probation.
In September 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in People v. Aguilar that the portion of the statute under which Fuller 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, attorney Joel Flaxman filed a motion to vacate Fuller’s gun possession conviction based on the Aguilar ruling. By that time, Fuller was serving a 60-year prison sentence after being convicted of murder in Chicago. On November 15, 2019, the motion to vacate Fuller’s weapon possession conviction was granted, and the charge was dismissed.
Flaxman filed a motion for a certificate of innocence. On December 10, 2020, Chief Cook County Criminal Court Judge Leroy Martin Jr. granted the motion.
Fuller subsequently filed a claim with the Illinois Court of Claims seeking compensation. In May 2021, he was awarded $32,000.
Also in 2021, Fuller sought to vacate a 2009 conviction for felon in possession of a firearm that was predicated on his 2003 conviction. On May 6, 2021, the motion was granted, the conviction was vacated, and the charge was dismissed. On November 4, 2021, Fuller was granted a certificate of innocence in Cook County Circuit Court. He then filed a claim with the Illinois Court of Claims seeking compensation and in March 2022, was awarded $20,000 in compensation.
– Maurice Possley
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