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Under the Tree Podcast: Beyond Prison with Jimmy Soto
Under the Tree Podcast
March 20, 2025
James (Jimmy) Soto was released from Stateville Prison in November, 2023, after suffering 42 years and 2 months in custody for a crime he did not commit. A month before his release he had received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. He and his co-defendant, Tyrone Ayala, also exonerated, were the longest serving wrongfully convicted people in Illinois history. At our Homecoming Party for Jimmy several men toasted him, and thanked him for the legal research he did as a jailhouse lawyer for them while inside. Knowing that Jimmy was planning to pursue a law degree, one of his compatriots said, “I saw what this brother did with a yellow pad and a pencil, now with a law degree, Look Out!” After his release, Soto said he felt “elated” but also full of “righteous anger…It should not have taken 42 years for this to happen.” A talented writer, artist, public speaker, and thinker, Jimmy Soto is a Justice Fellow at Beyond Prisons at the University of Chicago, and a paralegal at Northwestern School of Law.
Illinois' longest-serving exonerated man sues Chicago, cops for more than $200 million
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
October 22, 2024
After serving more than four decades in prison for a double murder he did not commit, 63-year-old James Soto is unsure if a couple hundred million dollars is enough to make up for time lost.
“I would say I’m deserving of probably $200 million-plus for what I’ve been through,” he said, adding he deserves the largest payout for being the longest-serving exonerated inmate in Illinois history.
In a new federal lawsuit, Soto’s lawyers at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy explain how police allegedly coerced confessions to implicate Soto and his cousin after failing to prosecute the two people initially suspected in the murders.
“Will people be held accountable? I don’t know,” Soto told reporters Tuesday about his lawsuit against the city, county and 32 Chicago police officers who allegedly participated in a cover-up.
Soto was 20 years old in 1981 when authorities accused him of carrying out a drive-by shooting amid a crowd during a softball game in Piotrowski Park at 31st Street and Keeler Avenue. The shooting killed a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old Marine who was home on leave.
Soto and his cousin David Ayala were convicted of murder and given life sentences. But they were exonerated last December after a Cook County judge vacated the convictions after serving 42 years each.
James Soto (right) and his cousin David Ayala spent four decades in prison and were released on Dec. 14, 2023, after being exonerated.
According to the lawsuit, detectives were facing pressure to convict someone and allegedly coerced a man named Wally Cruz to falsely confess that Ayala ordered the killings. Cruz had claimed that he drove Soto and another alleged shooter to the park, where they opened fire from a gangway because Latin King members were present.
The killings were witnessed by 30 people at the Little Village park, but no one ever confirmed Cruz’s story, according to the lawsuit. Others later testified to refute Cruz’s account.
The lawsuit alleges that police intimidated other witnesses to confirm the fabricated story, threatening them with harm and criminal charges.
Soto’s attorney, Jon Loevy, said he expects the case to take four or five years to get a trial.
Loevy was also an attorney for Marcel Brown, a Chicagoan who last month was awarded $50 million in damages from the city for a wrongful conviction. It set a record for the highest amount awarded to a single person in a wrongful conviction case in the U.S.
James Soto, who was exonerated after 42 years in prison, sits beside Jon Loevy, one of his attorneys, during a news conference Tuesday at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Streeterville.
The city’s law department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to comment.
Disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara is named in the lawsuit. Loevy said it’s unclear now how he is connected to Soto’s case, though his name appears in some reports. Guevara has cost taxpayers more than $76 million in city settlements for police misconduct.
Soto spoke Tuesday about studying law in prison to help him prove his innocence.
He took vocational courses in prison, received college credits, tutored Spanish-speaking peers, worked in the law library and became a member of the United States Junior Chamber, a leadership training service organization.
A month before he was freed, Soto graduated with his bachelor’s degree as part of the first cohort of Northwestern University’s prison education program. He now works as a paralegal and plans to go to law school. He said he plans to take the law school admission test in November.
Soto said he hopes for a payout to help put his life back together, but he said it’s more important to send a message of hope to other people wrongfully imprisoned.
“Obviously, the money would help me put together my life that’s been broken in a thousand pieces,” he said. “But the message sends a shot over the bow to say, ‘This is intolerable, inexcusable, for this to happen to someone.’”
Freed Men Sue Chicago PD and Cook County for Wrongful 42-Year Incarceration
HOODLINE CHICAGO
October 22, 2024
After over four decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit, James Soto, alongside his cousin David Ayala, is bringing their long quest for justice into the courts with a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department, Cook County prosecutors, and the City of Chicago.
Missteps and malfeasance by law enforcement have left deep, indelible scars on the lives of these two men, with Soto only now embarking on the arduous task of rebuilding what was unjustly taken from him.
In December, just shy of the holiday that many spend wrapped in the warmth of family and tradition, Soto and Ayala were freed after a judge ruled their 1981 convictions for a double murder in Little Village to be baseless.
As reported by ABC7 Chicago, their release marked the end of what is believed to be the longest wrongful conviction incarceration in the state of Illinois.
Soto's lawsuit, filed Tuesday, reveals a tale of fabricated evidence and dubious witness testimony that kept him locked away for 42 years.
Details brought to light in the ongoing case showcase a harrowing campaign by authorities to secure convictions.
According to the lawsuit, “Defendants built an entirely false case against Mr. Soto by fabricating false evidence and suppressing exculpatory evidence that Mr. Soto could have used to defend himself in the criminal trial against him.” This information, first made public by CBS News, depicts a troubling narrative of justice derailed.
Soto's legal team alleges that not only did the police coerce a man to falsely implicate him in the murders, they later relied on this sole witness in court while suppressing any contradictory evidence.
The lawsuit further claims that initially, witnesses identified two other suspects, yet police arrested only one, without proceeding with his case.
Instead, they are accused of pinning the crime on Soto and Ayala, crafting a narrative involving a gang meeting that never transpired.
To support their concocted story, Soto’s lawsuit accuses police of “convincing the star witness in the case to falsely claim that, on the day of the shooting, there was a gang meeting in the basement of Ayala's home”, where a murder plot was allegedly hatched.
Again, per the lawsuit, none of the individuals said to be at that fictive meeting confirmed the star witness's account.
The consequences of Soto's wrongful conviction resonate beyond the courtroom and into his personal struggles with reintegration.
In a statement reported by CBS News, he expressed a personal turmoil many of us could scarcely fathom: "At times, I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I know I'm out. And it's like, I'm sweating and I'm crying. Why am I crying? I should be so happy; joyful I'm out," said Soto, "but I just feel like I don't belong here." These words pierce through the legalese to touch the human core of Soto's ordeal, an innately personal struggle amid his legal battle.
Today, Soto pursues a future that challenges the past that shackled him. Graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's prison education program, just before his exoneration, he now works as a paralegal and eyes a law degree.
Man wrongfully imprisoned for over 40 years files lawsuit against CPD, Cook County
ABC 7 EYEWITNESS NEWS
October 22, 2024
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A man wrongfully imprisoned for over 40 years filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Chicago police, several Cook County prosecutors, Cook County and the city of Chicago.
James Soto was imprisoned for over 42 years for a murder he said he did not commit.
Soto's conviction and that of his cousin, David Ayala, were thrown out last December. They both served possibly the longest time of anyone on a wrongful conviction in Illinois.
The judge who vacated the convictions said the two did not receive adequate counsel after the murders of a marine and a teenager in 1981.
Soto and his lawyers Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against those they say framed him.
The suit, which civil rights firm Loevy & Loevy filed, seeks damages from dozens of Chicago police officers, three Cook County assistant state's attorneys, Cook County and the city of Chicago.
Soto and his lawyers spoke on the filing Tuesday afternoon in the Lincoln Hall of Northwestern's Law School.
A man is speaking out after suing CPD and Cook County. He was wrongfully imprisoned for over 40 years.
He's come a long way.
"It's truly justice, justice delayed," Soto said. "A shot over the bow that it's intolerable for this to happen to someone like me."
Last year, Soto was released from Stateville prison.
While in prison, he got an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University.
Soto's attorney said his federal lawsuit is among dozens brought by exonerees.
"The system is broken because there are cases like this one and others where the right thing to do is get a resolution, and instead what they do is hire expensive firms who charge millions of dollars in expensive fees," attorney Jon Loevy said.
Spokespeople for the city and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said they do not comment on pending litigation.
"Waiting for these cases, for these settlements to come through, or waiting to go to trial is to me ridiculous," Soto said.
While Soto waits for progress on the case, he continues his plans to become an attorney.
He is studying to take the LSAT in November.
New art exhibit on Chicago's South Side showcases works from inmates serving life sentences
CBS NEWS
May 24, 2024
CHICAGO (CBS) — Artists will have their works showcased in a new exhibit in Bridgeport. Those behind the works are inmates who are serving life sentences.
The art collectively tells a story about humanity in the face of incarceration.
Guests who attend the exhibit will be greeted with a purposeful beginning to a discussion about the people who have been sentenced to a lifetime of incarceration.
Alice Kim, who curated the space, is a prison educator and director of the University of Chicago's Center for the study of Race, Politics, and Culture. The exhibition is called "More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row."
She says the idea of the exhibit is to shine a light on those who have disappeared from their communities and neighborhoods.
"You see their stories throughout this exhibition; some of the artworks were created by artists on the outside, and some were created by people who are incarcerated themselves," Kim said.
"Based on a quote by James Baldwin, and the idea is that we who were incarcerated or formerly incarcerated wanted to show everyone our humanity," said Jimmy Soto, artist.
Kim aggregated her students' words, paintings, and mixed media art from the men's prison in Statesville to the Logan Correctional Center for female and trans inmates. It also features works of those who survived life row, including Soto, who was exonerated of a wrongful conviction last year after spending 42 years in prison.
"There is this constant depiction that people who go into prison that they are dehumanized, so the idea is to showcase that we are still human beings," he said.
Fellow artist Renaldo Hudson shared the same idea.
"When our art is able to excel beyond the wall, into a space where people begin to see us as human because it's called the "Humans of Life Row," not the convicts and the inmates that make it easy to throw us away," he said.
Around the corner from Soto's art, Hudson's piece hangs bright and peaceful, creating imagery to a poem written by one of the female inmates at Logan.
After 37 years in prison, 13 of which were spent on death row, Hudson's been advocating for those serving life sentences since his clemency approval and subsequent release in 2020.
"These spaces are vitally important because it says our humanity won't be lost behind a prison wall, and people care to hear our voices. And I believe that," Hudson said.
Illinois eliminated the death penalty in 2011, making way for a different death by incarceration — natural life sentencing, or referred to as life row.
The "More Beautiful, More Terrible" exhibition is co-sponsored by the prison neighborhood arts/education project and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture's Beyond Prisons initiative.
The space is open Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment at the Co-Prosperity space in Bridgeport.
Honoring the incarcerated
An exhibition at the Logan Center Gallery details the experience of COVID-19 in prisons.
CHICAGO READER
August 18, 2023
akes Me Wanna Holla: Art, Death & Imprisonment,” on view at the Logan Center Gallery, makes visceral the impact COVID-19 had on incarcerated people. The experience begins with a re-creation of a prison cell installed at the front of the main gallery. Designed by Chanton Bun, the “cell,” about the size of a parking space, is made to look like it is inhabited, with cans of food and a scant amount of clothing hanging from one of the bunk beds. During the height of the pandemic, some inmates around the state were confined to their cells for 23 hours per day, often with cellmates and neighbors who had fallen sick.
Accompanying this installation are brief audio recordings of loved ones recalling incarcerated people who died from COVID-19 in prison. One describes the onslaught of the disease as hitting “like a truck full force,” recalling that at the height, there were 15 to 20 medical emergencies per day.
“Makes Me Wanna Holla: Art, Death & Imprisonment” makes visceral the impact COVID-19 had on incarcerated people.Credit: Sarah Elizabeth Larson
The center of the gallery is filled with colorful quilted portraits, suspending from the ceiling, by local artist Dorothy Burge, depicting incarcerated survivors of Chicago police torture and other people who have been impacted by violence and incarceration. Burge’s work is but one element of the exhibition that centers the humanity of incarcerated folks.
As artist and curator Michelle Daniel Jones’s project, Mourning Our Losses notes, “We believe a loss of any human life warrants mourning.” Tied to that theme is a beautiful altar, decorated with streamers, candles, and flowers, paying tribute to some who lost their lives. Surrounding the altar is a plethora of hung work made by incarcerated artists, including pencil drawings, collage, and paintings in a wide range of styles, all reflecting on the experience of the pandemic.
In an adjoining gallery, an excerpt of Adamu Chan’s documentary What These Walls Won’t Hold plays, showing the organizing efforts to support people incarcerated at San Quentin Prison during the early days of COVID-19. Chan was in San Quentin when it boasted the largest COVID-19 outbreak in the country, and the film stems from his experience. Chan’s work ensures the voices and lives of those directly impacted by incarceration are centered, deftly embodying the ethos of Dorothy Burge and Michelle Daniel Jones and their impactful exhibition.