Champaign Prosecutor Won’t Fight Man’s Innocence Petition

Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz says she won't oppose a 51-year-old Chicago man's petition asking a court to declare him innocent in a 1980 murder for which he spent more than 30 years in prison.

Rietz told The News-Gazette in Champaign Wednesday that she won't object to Andre Davis' petition because she isn't sure she could prove he is guilty.

Davis was released from prison last year after DNA evidence helped overturn his conviction in the rape and murder of three-year-old Brianna Stickle of Rantoul. The town is about 20 miles north of Champaign.

Last week a Champaign County judge granted an innocence petition to Alan Beaman of Rockford in the 1993 murder of a former girlfriend. His conviction was overturned after he spent 13 years in prison.