And this was the first time in history that that many Black men had been simultaneously exonerated from crimes they didn't commit. That's right... Their convictions were overturned!
In a press conference that followed, the men alleged that a former police sergeant and his team of officers from the Chicago Police Department planted the drugs on them, and then took things even further by falsifying police reports.
Joshua Tepfer, an attorney with the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago, said that the police officers repeatedly targeted low income Black men who lived in South Side housing projects. Others in command at the Chicago Police Department reportedly knew what was going on, but did not do anything to stop it.
Sadly, justice was not fully served to the corrupt officers. Two of them were convicted and served about two years in prison, and as many as seven others were never charged and continued to work on the force.
Watch the press conference below on CBS Chicago:
