The man accused of killing Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teen who was killed just days after performing at President Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration, will remain in jail as he awaits a new trial, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
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Michaeil Ward was convicted in 2018 of shooting and killing 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and sentenced to 84 years in prison, but an Illinois appeals court overturned the conviction in 2023, saying that statements he made to detectives after exercising his right to remain silent should have been inadmissible in trial.
“It’s all about political, and my son does not deserve it,” Ward’s mother, April Ward, said after Tuesday’s hearing. She’d earlier taken the stand asking Judge Diana Kenworthy to release her son as he awaits trial.
Pendleton’s parents, also in court, were clearly unhappy with the thought of having to sit through another jury trial.
