Politics
Pay $18.5M to Man Who Spent 34 Years in Prison for Double Murder He Didn’t Commit: City Lawyers
(WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers should pay $18.5 million to a man who spent 34 years in prison after being convicted of a 1989 double murder he didn’t commit, city lawyers recommended.
Francisco “Frankie” Benitez was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in connection with the murders of Prudencio Cruz and his friend William Sanchez, who were both 14 when they were killed.
The City Council’s Finance Committee will consider resolving the lawsuit he filed in 2023 on Thursday. A final vote of the City Council could come on Oct. 16.
If approved, it would bring the total amount spent by taxpayers in 2025 to compensate those wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police officers to $164.2 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.
No physical evidence linked Benitez to the double murder.
Benitez said he confessed to shooting the boys as part of a gang-related conflict after Chicago Police Detectives Jerome Bogucki and Raymond Schalk promised he would be released if he said he fired in self-defense. Instead, prosecutors sought the death penalty.
Two people testified they saw Benitez shoot the boys.
In 2021, Benitez asked a judge to overturn his conviction, citing the exoneration of Thaddeus Jimenez, who was 13 years old when he was convicted of murder based on evidence gathered by Bogucki and Schalk.
A jury awarded Jimenez $25 million in damages in 2012 after he sued the city for wrongful conviction. In 2017, Jimenez was sentenced to nine years in prison after using that money to rebuild the Simon City Royals street gang.
The witnesses who identified Benitez as the man who shot the boys recanted their testimony, and two brothers, who were 10 and 12 years old at the time of the double murder, said he saw another man fire the fatal shots but did not come forward because their family was paid for their silence.
Benitez’s conviction was overturned in August 2023, and he was released in September 2023 after the Cook County state’s attorney declined to retry him. Benitez was granted a certificate of innocence in December 2023.
Wrongful convictions have long been the most expensive kind of police misconduct in Chicago, according to a WTTW News analysis.
Between Jan. 1 and July 31, taxpayers spent $145.7 million to resolve lawsuits filed by Chicagoans convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, records show.
In 2026, taxpayers will pay an additional $90 million to 180 people who spent a combined nearly 200 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
