SPRINGFIELD â Larry Golden said getting John Hanlon to come over to the Illinois Innocence Project in 2011 was incredibly fortuitous.
The project, based at the University of Illinois Springfield, was able to entice Hanlon after landing a major federal grant, said Golden, the project s founding member.
Hanlon had been the assistant deputy defender for the Office of the Illinois Appellate Defender s Capital Litigation Unit since 2000. But in 2011, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty after a decadelong moratorium, meaning Hanlon would have to move to another OSAD office or find another job. It was time to do something else very challenging and here s a fledgling innocence project â no lawyers, no money at that time and a lot of uncertainty in how to pull it all together â so it was a challenge big time, Hanlon said. It was also a chance to work with Larry Golden. Larry has done such incredible work in the Springfield community and Sangamon County f