ROCKFORD The case for a man acquitted of murder and his quest for a certificate of innocence will continue for at least another three weeks.
Patrick Pursley, accompanied by his attorney Rachel Brady, appeared Monday in Winnebago County Court before Judge Joe McGraw. Their appearance came two months after McGraw granted the certificate and three weeks after the state and a private law firm asked McGraw to reconsider his decision.
Pursley, now lives in the Champaign area served 23 years of a life sentence in prison in connection to the 1993 murder of Andy Ascher.
Ascher and his girlfriend, Becky Myers, whose last name was George in 1993, were seated in a car on Silent Wood Trail when a man wearing a ski mask approached and demanded their money. The man, whose face was not see, then proceeded to shoot Ascher in the head.
ROCKFORD A certificate of innocence granted in late February to Patrick Pursley is being contested.
The Winnebago County State s Attorney s Office as well as a private law firm representing seven retired Rockford police detectives who pegged Pursley as the gunman who robbed and fatally shot Andy Ascher in 1993 have filed a motion to reconsider.
The request was filed Wednesday just within the 30-day time frame permitted, prosecutors said. The certificate, among other things, allows Pursley to file for up to $220,000 in compensation for being incarcerated for 23 years.
Mike Iasparro, an attorney with the law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson, and Andrew Fisk, an assistant state s attorney, said the motion was filed on the basis of new evidence. Iasparro went on to explain Thursday it is actually the same ballistics evidence that only recently has been properly tested.
ROCKFORD Two years after he was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge, former Rockford resident Patrick Pursley is celebrating another legal victory.
Judge Joseph McGraw granted Pursley’s petition for a certificate of innocence on Friday in the 1993 shooting death of Andy Ascher.
Pursley was convicted of Ascher’s murder in 1994 and spent 23 years of a life sentence in prison before he was granted a new trial after ballistics tests showed the Taurus 9 mm handgun used to convict him was not the murder weapon.
“I am convinced by the preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Pursley is actually innocent of the charge,” McGraw said in court Friday.