Nicole Ringgold
Nicole Ringgold was preparing to fly to Chicago on March 19 to attend an important court hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court building on the West Side. That’s where a Cook County judge was set to announce on March 20 whether to grant Selma Butler, a wrongfully convicted man, a new trial decades after he was found guilty of murdering a woman in the Robert Taylor Homes housing projects.
But one day before Ringgold was set to board a United Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Chicago, she received bad news: Judge James Obbish cancelled the court hearing and rescheduled it for a later date for unexplained reasons.
Then came more bad news for Ringgold: Priceline, the travel agency she used to book her roundtrip flight to Chicago from Philadelphia, will not refund her $366.29, even though she paid $20.73 for airline insurance.
“I couldn’t believe it when they told me that a cancelled court hearing did not qualify as a reason for a refund,” Ringgold told the Crusader.
Ringgold provided the Crusader screenshots of her itinerary, which included a rental car, which she did not put down a deposit for a reservation.
According to her itinerary, she was scheduled to fly on United Airlines from Philadelphia to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on March 19. The itinerary also says Ringgold had until 11:30 p.m. March 16 to cancel and get a refund. Two days past the deadline, on March 18, Ringgold learned that the hearing was cancelled and that she would no longer need the trip to Chicago.
Priceline is a discount travel agency that many passengers on a budget use to get affordable airline fares. Over the years, Priceline, like Cheap Tickets, Cheap Fares, and Expedia, has become popular as millions of Americans return to the skies after the coronavirus pandemic.
The Crusader sent several messages to the Priceline media office for its print edition but hadn’t heard back by press time Wednesday.
United Airlines told the Crusader that because Ringgold purchased her ticket through Priceline, “she’ll need to work directly with the third-party agency on their refund process.”
Meanwhile, the Crusader has learned that Butler’s hearing before Judge Obbish has been rescheduled for April 24.
Continuances are common and a way of life in wrongful conviction cases in Cook County criminal court. Prosecutors, public defenders, and even judges are known to rack up dozens of these delays, which cause cases to drag on for months, even years.
Butler has also had many continuances in his post-conviction case. His evidentiary hearing began in September, three months after it was scheduled to start in June 2024.
Butler has been fighting for years for a new trial after he served 25 years in prison for the brutal murder of Angela Young. He was released in 2020.
In 1998, Butler was convicted of first-degree murder and home invasion after Young was stabbed 66 times in her apartment in 1995. Prosecutors said Butler, then 17, was with Gino Wilson, another teenager, and was acquitted with similar evidence in a separate bench trial under the same judge.
It’s a case that has raised significant concerns by an Illinois appellate court that granted Butler an evidentiary hearing. George Grzeca, Butler’s public defender, asked few questions and gave no opening statements in a bench trial that lasted just 45 minutes. Photos and witnesses that could have been used in Butler’s defense were not presented in court before Judge Joseph Urso.
Butler’s attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean and Ashley Cohen, argue that he deserves a new trial based on DNA evidence, along with photographs and witnesses that were available but never presented in court by his public defender.
Judge Obbish, on March 20, was expected to give his ruling after five months of hearings where Butler’s attorneys and prosecutors argued whether Butler should be given a new trial. Prosecutors maintained Butler was guilty, based on the recanted testimony of Earl Gilmore, at the time a 14-year-old boy who, during a police interrogation, said he was threatened with charges should he not testify in the trial. Butler’s attorneys said they have proven they met the burden of innocence with DNA evidence and arguments from the Illinois Appellate Court.
Prosecutors said Butler and Wilson murdered Young over marijuana. Antonio Thomas, who told police he was friends with Wilson and Butler, said he and Gilmore were with them when they entered Young’s apartment. Police said Thomas told them he saw Butler kill her.
But during Wilson’s trial, Thomas said he was at another location during the murder. He even said “no” 42 times to the same open-ended questions he gave to the same prosecutor prior to Wilson’s trial.
While cross-examining Gilmore during Butler’s bench trial, George Grzeca, Butler’s public defender, asked Gilmore just three questions. During that testimony, Gilmore said he did not see Butler stab Young and that police made him say that during his testimony to a grand jury.
A violent crime log dated November 28, 1995, documented dozens of photos that captured close-up shots of Young’s battered body. There are also close-up shots of Butler and Wilson. Neither had scratches or bruises on their faces after Young allegedly hit them during the struggle. The photos show Butler had no injuries or bruises to his hands that indicated he stabbed Young over 50 times. Grzeca didn’t present any of these photos during the trial.
In his appeal for a new trial, the three-member judicial panel expressed alarm about how Butler’s case was handled.
“This entire case is justice delayed,” Justice Terrance Lavin said… “I’m here to tell you that in a murder case where somebody gets 50 years in prison, for a lawyer to ask four questions at trial… Four questions at a trial is just ineffective assistance, OK? I don’t understand it because I’m sure he’s (Grzeca) a competent attorney who has gone on to other jobs and has done a great job. But something was amiss here, and a man sat in prison all this time on some of the skinniest evidence I’ve ever seen.”