Witness who recanted testimony charged with perjury

A witness to a 1992 double homicide who identified the killers has been charged with perjury after recanting his testimony.

Willie Johnson was wounded in the shooting on Chicago’s West Side and identified Cedric Cal and Albert Kirkman as the shooters. During a hearing in January, Johnson told Judge Michael Brown his identification of the gunmen at the 1994 trial was false.

Brown did not find Johnson’s assertion credible and did not reverse Cal’s and Kirkman’s convictions. They are serving life sentences.

In charging the 40-year-old Johnson, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said it takes perjury seriously.

Rob Warden of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions says prosecutors are sending the message that if you recant in a case, “you will be prosecuted.”

Johnson was freed on bond Friday.