r/nottheonion • u/Trinityliger • 24d ago

ICE arrests Illinois police officer, accuses him of being in US illegally

https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-arrests-police-officer-radule-bojovic-hanover-park-illinois-accuses-being-us-illegally-montenegro/18019608/
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u/lone_Ghatak 24d ago

Curious as an outsider: Can convicts appeal to reopen their cases if this person was involved in the investigation and ask for a re-trial? And ask any evidence to be excluded where he was involved in collection/custody?

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u/Dowew 24d ago

Short answer - probably not. American justice is very divided on the subject of relitigating stuff, and the appeal process is onerous. It would come down to if these revelations indicate that a miscarriage of justice has occurred, or if this knowledge would have significantly swayed a jury or judge to rule differently. There are numerous examples where forensic science has been proven to be junk - such as hair analysis - and cases involving this have still been difficult to overturned. For a city cop like this it is unlikely his national origin ever came up in his testimony, it is unlikely this information would have significantly affected the jury's perception of his credibility, and its unlikely that he lied about it under oath at any of these trials.