Hey, everyone, a quick note. This episode's been updated with some additional interview tape from Judge Matthew Coglin.

Hey, it's Alexandra, Curious City Editor. Tell me if this experience sounds familiar. It's election day.

You step into the booth. If you're like me, you've done a little research on who you're going to vote for beforehand,

whether it's for mayor,

congressman, or maybe state's attorney. You're feeling prepared. But the further you go down the ballot,

the less familiar the names start to sound, especially once you get to the judges. So what do you do?

A lot of people just go and check them off. That's Jose Montanez,

in an interview with soapbox media in 2018. He knows just how much a judge can impact your life.

In 1993, Montanez and an acquaintance, Armando Serrano, were arrested and eventually convicted for a murder they didn't commit.

There was no gun. There's no DNA. There's no eyewitnesses. There was absolutely no evidence in our case to convict us.

And my rights were trampled down because they convicted me beyond a reasonable doubt.

Both men would spend more than 23 years behind bars before being exonerated.

As Serrano explains, their time in prison was traumatic.

It was hell, you know, you know, you're innocent and being, you know, you're treated like crap

by correctional officers or having to watch out for inmates as well.

And it was a nightmare. It was a living hell.

One of the prosecutors who worked on the case was Matthew Coglin.

Coglin went on to get elected Cook County judge.

And you're going to hear more about that later.

Now, it turned out that Serrano and Montanez's conviction was based on false testimony. His conviction

hinged mainly on testimony from a jailhouse informant who later said he lied after he was threatened.

When this came to light, the men filed a petition to have their convictions reviewed,

...