Alumna Andrea Lyon, ’76, Director of the Center for Justice in Capital Cases at DePaul University Law School, was singled out for praise by then-Illinois Governor James Ryan in his widely publicized speech in early January pardoning several innocent prisoners and commuting sentences to life in prison for more than 100 inmates on Illinois’ death row. Issuing his executive orders, Ryan cited the importance of "dedicated people like Andrea Lyon, who has labored on the front lines trying capital cases for many years and who is now devoting her passion to creating an innocence center at DePaul University. [She] saved Madison Hobley's life."

Hobley and his family had been seeking justice since his 1990 conviction for setting a 1987 fire that killed seven people, including his wife and toddler. His defenders contended he was tortured into confessing by a notorious Chicago police commander and that his conviction was based on questionable "witness" testimony and evidence, including a gas can that could not have retained its pristine condition had it been involved in the fire.

At an earlier event at DePaul University Law School, Ryan explained, "Madison’s trial lawyers had no idea that the testimony of this witness was tainted. ... Nor did they know that a gasoline can introduced into evidence during his trial was not used to start the fatal fire, but rather had been seized earlier at another, unrelated fire. That’s because his lawyer and investigator, Andrea Lyon and her team, and Paul Ciolino uncovered this new evidence."

Lyon said there is much that remains to be done on this issue. "The Center for Justice in Capital Cases at DePaul will continue to work on behalf of those facing death, while training new lawyers how to provide the best defense possible in capital cases. It is my hope that the new governor will continue what Gov. Ryan has started and that one day soon, we can approach Gov. Ryan’s vision of justice in Illinois," she said.