Police Coerced a False Confession from 20-Year-Old Danny Davis — 32 Years Later, His Murder Conviction Is Finally Vacated

Danny Davis returned home Tuesday after more than 32 years in prison for a murder that DNA evidence proves he did not commit.  

He was released after a judge vacated his convictions in the 1992 murder and robbery of a woman in Cairo, Illinois. The woman was brutally stabbed 38 times in her home, where she ran a small neighborhood store selling soda, snacks and cigarettes.

Days after her death, police wanted to talk to 17-year-old Isaac Davis about the murder based on an unfounded tip. Officers took Isaac and his 20-year old brother Danny in for questioning. 

Danny endured many hours of psychological and physical abuse, including police threats that Isaac was going down for the crime. Police also threatened Danny with the death penalty, saying “your Black ass” is “going to fry.” Fearing for their lives, Danny and Isaac both signed false confession statements implicating themselves and an acquaintance, DeVoe Johnson, in the crime.  

With his case going to trial just a few months later and facing the death penalty, Danny was pressured to plead guilty for a life sentence. When he entered his guilty plea in front of the judge, Danny said on the record  “I just want to live. That’s the only reason I’m pleading to it.”  He was sentenced to life without parole. Isaac also pleaded guilty.

DeVoe Johnson went to a bench trial, a trial that does not involve a jury and is conducted by the judge alone. The presiding judge was the same judge who accepted Danny and Isaac’s guilty pleas. The judge found DeVoe not guilty and acquitted him, finding that the confessions were not credible  – a shocking development since these were the same confessions at the center of Danny and Issac’s convictions.  

In 2015, the Illinois Innocence Project and Innocence Project jointly took on Danny’s case, with the Exoneration Project later joining the team. In their post-conviction investigation, attorneys litigated for access to evidence for DNA testing and obtained information that had not been turned over to the defense during the original investigation, including critical witness statements and potential alternate suspects who were never investigated. Testing identified male DNA underneath the fingernails of the victim, who tried to fight off her attacker. Danny, Isaac and DeVoe were all excluded.

Last week, after an evidentiary hearing where the evidence of Danny’s innocence was presented, the court vacated Danny’s convictions and ordered his release. Now 52 years old, Danny walked out of prison and reunited with his family, including his brother Isaac who was previously released from prison, after more than three decades of wrongful incarceration. 

The State has filed a notice to appeal the judge’s ruling, so the fight for Danny’s full exoneration is not over. 

On his car ride home, his first taste of freedom in more than three decades, Danny shared with his lawyers that he hopes other wrongly convicted people will see him and know to keep fighting. 

Danny is represented by Illinois Innocence Project lawyers Lauren Kaeseberg and Maria de Arteaga, Innocence Project Attorney Vanessa Potkin, and Exoneration Project attorneys Lauren Myerscough-Mueller and Karl Leonard. Illinois Innocence Project Staff Investigator Lynn Bagley provided critical investigation work on the case.

To support Danny during his transition home visit his Amazon wish list.