For a man who spent more than 26 years in prison for a murder that he says he did not commit, Alton Logan is remarkably free of the bitterness and anger that infested his spirit after he was sentenced to life in prison, reports the Chicago Tribune. His conviction for allegedly murdering a security guard at a South Side McDonald’s in 1982 was “a hard pill to swallow,” Logan, 54, said in an interview. “Of the first five years in prison, I spent 31/2 in segregation . . . for disobeying orders and fighting. . . . My hardheaded self was in control. But I’m not bitter. You can’t be bitter. You have to understand why this happened, and you have to accept it.”
Logan reflected on his life after he was released on bail April 18, when a Cook County Circuit judge set aside his conviction and ordered a new trial. The ruling by Judge James Schreier came after new evidence emerged in the case. Earlier this year, attorneys Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry revealed that they had known all along that their client, convicted cop-killer Andrew Wilson, had admitted to fatally shooting the guard in January 1982. They had remained silent because of attorney-client privilege and came forward after Wilson died in prison in November. Wilson had been serving a life sentence for the murders of two police officers.
Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-alton-logan-06-may06,0,5595945.story