A Chicago man whose double murder sentence was commuted by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in 2021 was recently arrested for allegedly driving a stolen van belonging to the city of Kenosha, CWB Chicago reported.
Gerald Reed, 58, is facing felony charges after officers with the Chicago Police department discovered the keys, in his front pocket, to a blue GMC Savana van that was reported missing by Kenosha, Wisconsin officials. Police also found identification documents belonging to Reed in the center console of the vehicle.
Police were tipped off by the stolen vehicle after they interviewed Reed’s roommate while responding to a domestic disturbance call on Monday.
The 58-year-old works as a laborer for Loyola University and is not an employee of the city of Kenosha.
Reed is also facing burglary and resisting police charges from a pending case in Dane County, Wisconsin, according to prosecutors during Reed’s bail hearing.
Before 2021, Reed was serving a life sentence on a double murder conviction for the fatal shootings of Pamela Powers and Willie Williams in the south side of Chicago in 1990. Reed claims that he was tortured into giving a confession.
However, Pritzker commuted Reed’s sentence in April 2021 based on a petition that he was at a high risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. While his sentence was commuted, Reed was not exonerated.
Prosecutors mulled whether to try Reed again for the murders, but such an attempt would have been ill-fated as the 59-year-old cannot be sent back to prison on a charge that has been commuted, according to the judge presiding over the case via CWB Chicago.
Reed is currently being held in a Cook County jail on a $5,000 bond and is due back in court on September 7.
A year before Reed was released, Pritzker allowed nearly 4,000 inmates, including sex offenders and murderers, to be released from state prisons due to coronavirus concerns, Breitbart News reported at the time.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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