John Galvan and Arthur Almendarez Walk Free in Chicago After 35 Years in Prison for Arson

Both men were convicted based on coerced confessions they maintain involved the use of police torture.

07.15.22 By Innocence Staff

Exoneration Project client Arthur Almendarez walking out of Cook County Jail with his family after 35 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. (Image: Ray Abercrombie for the Innocence Project)

Exoneration Project client Arthur Almendarez walking out of Cook County Jail with his family after 35 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. (Image: Ray Abercrombie for the Innocence Project)

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John Galvan as a child (Image: Courtesy of the Galvan family for the Innocence Project)

Today, Innocence Project client John Galvan was released on an “I bond” from Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, after spending 35 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. Mr. Galvan was released with his co-defendant Arthur Almendarez, the latter of whom is represented by Joshua Tepfer of The Exoneration Project. Both men have steadfastly maintained their innocence over the last three and a half decades for a 1986 fire that killed two men in Chicago.

“We have been waiting for this day for 35 years,” Mr. Almendarez’s sister Laura Guevara told CBS News, while waiting outside the jail for her brother to be released. “It’s overdue.”