Race in Chicago: One Man's Fight For Redemption

Marshan Allen was 15 years old when he says his brother sent him and two other older teens to an apartment on the South side of Chicago to take back cash and coke stolen by a fellow gang member.

Allen insists he had no idea the older teens would open fire through the front door that day in March 1992, killing two men.

“Ultimately, it was my fault. I made the wrong choices,” Allen told Rob Stafford in a 2008 interview after being convicted of the double murder. He was sentenced to natural life without parole.

By all accounts, Marshan was not the shooter that day but said he felt bad for the mothers of the young men who died and wanted to apologize.

“I remember Miss Gaston saying she had to clean up her sons’ blood and I’m sorry for that too,” Allen added.

While in prison, Allen studied law through paralegal training and filed appeals to reduce his sentence, as life outside the prison walls, passed him by.

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