Cobb & Tillis

Cook County, IL

Cobb & Tillis

Nov 13, 1977 (North Side)

Perry Cobb and Darby Williams Tillis were sentenced to death for the murders of Melvin Kanter and Charles Gucciona. The murders occurred during a robbery of the victims' hot dog stand. The prosecution's key witness was a woman named Phyllis Santini, who claimed that she had driven the getaway car for the two men. The defense argued that Santini and her boyfriend, Johnny Brown, had committed the crimes, and that she was framing Cobb and Tillis. The first trial ended in a hung jury, as did a second trial.

At the third trial, a witness who had earlier testified that he could not identify the defendants as the men he saw, suddenly changed his story and now claimed that he saw Cobb and Tillis enter the store. This third trial in 1979 ended in convictions and death sentences. Judge Thomas J. Maloney presided over the three trials and has since been convicted of taking bribes to fix murder cases. He was accused of being tough on defendants like Cobb and Tillis who did not offer bribes. Maloney refused to allow two defense witnesses to testify. The two claimed Santini had admitted committing the murders with Brown. The two also said she expected a reward for her testimony against Cobb and Tillis. (She was in fact paid $1200.) The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the convictions based on limitations that were put on the defense's ability to argue that Santini and her boyfriend were the true culprits.

While the parties were preparing for a fourth trial, Michael Falconer, a recent law school graduate, happened to read an account of the case in Chicago Lawyer. Falconer recognized Santini's name because he had worked with her in a factory before going to law school. At that time, Santini had confided in him that she and her boyfriend had committed a double homicide and that she was working with prosecutors in return for a deal that would keep her from being charged. Falconer, who had then become a Lake County prosecutor, testified about this conversation at the fourth trial, which again ended in a hung jury. Finally, at a fifth trial in 1987, both Cobb and Tillis were acquitted of all charges. (CWC1) (CWC2) (Profiles of Injustice) (PC) [12/06]