James Edwards, imprisoned in 1994 murder, sues Waukegan police

By Dan Hinkel, Tribune reporter
Chicago Tribune
Oct. 14, 2011

For the third time in recent years, Waukegan police are being sued over a criminal investigation called into question by DNA testing.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Chicago federal court, convicted murderer James Edwards alleges that officers coerced him into confessing that he killed Waukegan appliance store owner Fred Reckling in 1994.

Edwards' suit alleges that the officers beat and intimidated him over the course of 26 hours until he signed a statement, typed by police, admitting he bludgeoned Reckling to death, robbed him and stole his car.

Though blood found in Reckling's car and business didn't match Edwards', prosecutors told jurors at his 1996 murder trial that the evidence didn't clear him, arguing that the blood likely came from an employee injured on the job. Edwards was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

But recent DNA tests showed that the blood belongs to a man who Edwards' criminal defense lawyer says could be the real killer, a man described in court records as a former Evanston resident arrested on armed robbery charges within weeks of the murder.

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