Steven Manning, a former Chicago police officer who was exonerated from Illinois’ death row in 2000 but remained in a Missouri prison on another charge, has been freed after Missouri prosecutors dropped all charges against him. In January 2000, 7 years after he was sentenced to death in Illinois, a judge threw out Manning’s death sentence and conviction because the state used inadmissible testimony to secure his conviction. Cook County prosecutors later dismissed their case against Manning because the testimony of the remaining key witness in the case, Tommy Dye, was unreliable. Dye, a notorious jailhouse snitch, had a long history of lying under oath and of receiving benefits from prosecutors in exchange for testimony in cases. After Illinois prosecutors dropped their case, Manning challenged his Missouri kidnapping conviction. This charge was also based on unreliable informant testimony, most notably statements given by a kidnapping ringleader who later complained that the state failed to pay him the money they had promised for his testimony. The state also used the testimony of a questionable eyewitness who failed to accurately identify Manning during his first trial. “I’m not sure a kidnapping even occurred,” said defense attorney Cynthia Short. “Not only do I think Steve was never involved, I don’t know it happened,” she said after the Missouri charges were dismissed in February 2004. Manning is now free and is suing two FBI agents for their role in his wrongful convictions. (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 27, 2004) See Innocence. There have been 113 death row inmates exonerated since 1973. Manning’s reversal in Illinois led to a moratorium on all executions in that state that remains in place.