On May 20, the Chicago City Council approved a $13 million settlement for Arnold Day, who spent 26 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in a 1991 murder.
The case is part of the terrible legacy of disgraced Chicago Police detective Jon Burge, who in 2008 was found guilty of directly participating in, or implicitly approving, the torture of at least 118 Black men in order to secure false confessions throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and early ’90s. Arnold Day—only 18 when he was arrested for two murders he didn’t commit—was coerced and physically abused into falsely confessing to both murders by former detectives Kenneth Boudreau, Jude Evans, and William Foley.
Mr. Day testified that, during his arrest, Evans stomped on his head, and that during the interrogation—after Mr. Day initially refused to falsely confess—Foley choked him and threatened to throw him out of the window. Mr. Day was forced into falsely confessing, and relied on details the officers had fed him while he was handcuffed to the interrogation room wall.
Mr. Day went to trial in both murder cases. Fortunately, Mr. Day was able to prove his innocence in one of the cases by presenting alibi evidence, but he was convicted for the second murder based almost entirely on his false confession. (No eyewitness testified against Mr. Day, and no forensic evidence ever tied him to the crime.) As a result of the false evidence, Mr. Day was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
On May 20, 2026, the Chicago City Council voted to approve a $13 million settlement for Mr. Day, who, since his release, has rebuilt a life for himself in Texas.
Overall, twenty-four Black men have been exonerated after being convicted based on evidence developed by the same detectives who fabricated the case against Mr. Day. Jon Burge was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. He was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury in 2008, and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He died in 2018.
“Nothing can give Arnold back the years that were deliberately stolen from him by these officers,” says attorney Renee Spence. “But he is relieved to have this 35-year ordeal finally behind him now, and to be able to continue to re-build his life in peace.”
Mr. Day is represented by Jon Loevy, Renee Spence, Heather Lewis Donnell, and Gayle Horn of Loevy + Loevy, and Steve Greenberg of Greenberg Trial Lawyers.