$22.5 Million Jury Verdict Against Naperville in One of Illinois’ Largest-Ever Wrongful Conviction Verdicts
Late on Monday, August 5, 2024, a Federal jury delivered one of the state’s largest-ever wrongful conviction verdicts against a Naperville police officer for framing William Amor for an alleged 1995 arson-murder that turned out to be an accidental fire.
Amor, who died in January of last year, wrongfully served more than two decades in prison before he was acquitted in 2018 based on updated fire science that showed that the fire that killed his mother-in-law was accidental.
Amor falsely confessed to setting the fire after a marathon 15-hour interrogation by Naperville Police during which police allowed divorce papers to be served on him.
For many years “junk science” plagued investigations of suspected arson, resulting in many wrongful convictions where police attempted to “solve” crimes that didn’t happen. As fire science developed, in 2012 the Illinois Innocence Project began re-investigating the case that had landed Amor with a 45 year sentence in an Illinois prison. Based on that updated science, in 2017 a DuPage County judge tossed Amor’s conviction and ordered a new trial.
“On May 30, 2017, Amor was released on bond pending a retrial,” according to veteran criminal justice journalist Maurice Possley. “He went to trial a second time in February 2018, represented by a team of lawyers from the Illinois Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School, and the law firm of Cozin O’Connor.”
After Amor was acquitted, he filed suit against Naperville in 2018, represented by Jon Loevy, Locke Bowman, Tara Thompsonand Alyssa Martinez of the civil rights law firm Loevy + Loevy.
“Prior to trial, the City of Naperville offered a maximum of $500,000 to settle this case, believing they were going to win,” said lead trial attorney Jon Loevy. “They miscalculated.”
Jon Loevy and Locke Bowman are available for interviews upon request by calling 773.209.1187
Loevy + Loevy is one of the largest civil rights law firms in the country. Over the past decade, Loevy & Loevy has won more multi-million-dollar jury verdicts than any other civil rights law firm in the country.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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