“I'm Ivy Kelly and I'm INNOCENT!!!”: Supporters Rally Ahead of Nov. 2 Retrial

Nearly three years after his murder conviction was overturned, Ivy Kelly is preparing to stand trial again. This time, he is asking the public to watch—and supporters are organizing a courthouse rally to make sure he isn't alone.

“Come see WHY Cook County leads the nation in wrongful convictions!” Kelly wrote in an email message to the Cook County Courtroom Observer. “All you legal experts trying to figure out how it keeps happening come on out…Come see the show!”

Ivy Kelly was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003 for the 1999 shooting death of Joseph Ward in Robbins, Illinois, in a case that relied heavily on witness statements later recanted or challenged at trial. After years of post-conviction litigation involving allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel and evidence that a key prosecution witness had worked as an FBI informant, a Cook County judge vacated Kelly's conviction in 2023 and ordered a new trial.

In September 2022, Kelly rejected an agreement that would have allowed him to leave prison in exchange for pleading guilty. He maintained his innocence, and he remains in custody as prosecutors prepare to retry him.

“I have waited 27 years for Monday, November 2nd. I have not and will not EVER waiver [sic] in maintaining my innocence,” Kelly wrote. "I'm ready for justice."

Kelly's bench trial is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in Judge Michele Pitman's courtroom at the Sixth Municipal District courthouse in Markham. 

Supporters Prepare to Pack the Courtroom

Friends and community advocates are rallying around Kelly. 

In the weeks leading up to the retrial, Blocks United Revolutionary Network, known as BURN, has called on the community to contact Cook County State's Attorney Eilleen O'Neille Burke and urge her to dismiss the case. 

This case "represents a very widespread and common struggle" Julian Remano, a BURN volunteer working on uplifting Kelly's campaign told the Courtroom Observer. "Ivy’s case is not unique unfortunately. Cook County is the wrongful conviction capital of the nation. So we uplift Ivy because his fight is one that a substantial section of society can relate to."

BURN is a Chicago-based grassroots organization that advocates for people affected by police violence, incarceration and other forms of injustice through community organizing and direct action.

"Hopefully through exposure, those who have been wrongfully convicted, warehoused in jails and prisons, and treated as trophies for the state's attorney can see themselves as makers of history. We want people to see themselves in Ivy and stand with him in the fight to dismantle the system responsible for all this injustice."

BURN plans to hold a rally at 9:30 a.m. local time outside the courthouse before attending the proceedings.

"We will then show support in Courtroom 103 as the state puts Ivy through a sham trial OR, they will come to their senses and dismiss the charges and trial before it even starts!" the group posted.

Jennie Branner has known Kelly since high school and leads efforts to help him tell his story. "Ivy needs justice," Branner said in an interview with BURN. “I know his character. This is not something he would have ever done." Branner says Ivy and Joseph were friends and that Kelly spent a lot of time with the Ward family."

“It Isn't About Actual Justice”

At a September 29 pretrial hearing, prosecutors asked Pitman to exclude evidence of alleged misconduct by Robbins police detectives, including Terrence Franklin, arguing that allegations involving his past arrests, civil lawsuits and federal investigations had not been sufficiently connected to Kelly's case. But the defense maintained that evidence concerning the original police investigation is relevant to assessing the credibility of the prosecution's case.

Judge Michele Pitman declined to exclude all the disputed evidence, reserving some decisions about its admissibility for trial.

Kelly accused prosecutors of attempting to maintain a wrongful conviction. “It isn't about actual justice,” he wrote. “It’s about preserving the status quo. It’s about attempting to protect a wrongful conviction at the expense of the truth and facts that are inconvenient for them.”

Calls to end the prosecution aren't without precedent. Cook County prosecutors have dismissed murder charges after convictions were overturned, even in cases headed toward retrial.

In December 2019, prosecutors dropped charges against Xavier Walker as his attorneys prepared to challenge an allegedly coerced confession. In January 2019, prosecutors dismissed charges against Eric Blackmon after his conviction had been vacated the previous year. In April 2016, they dropped charges against Eddie Bolden following an order granting him a new trial. And in December 2023, prosecutors declined to retry Darien Harris, whose conviction relied on testimony from a witness who was legally blind.

For now, Kelly is preparing for another trial and asking the public to witness the proceedings.

"All I ask of anyone reading this is, if you are able, show up ... so that it isn't done in the dark," he wrote.