Chicago man gets new trial after 21 years behind bars

A Cook County judge has ordered a new trial for a Chicago man who has served 21 years in prison for the gang-related killing of a 16-year-old in 1988.

Witness Orlando Lopez was 13-years-old when he testified he watched Jacques Rivera shoot a rival gang member. Lopez has recanted that testimony, and Judge Neera Walsh ruled Tuesday that she doesn’t believe Lopez’s decision was coerced or fabricated. Rivera was convicted in August 1988 in the death of Felix Valentin on Chicago’s West Side. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

When the judge read her ruling the 46-year-old Rivera cried “Oh, my God. Thank you.” He is represented by Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.

Lopez said in an affidavit that his “coming forward now is all about redemption.”