Attorneys for former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson have filed a motion to vacate his second-degree murder conviction.
A Peoria County jury convicted Grayson in October 2025 for the July 2024 fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in her Springfield home as he handled a burglary call. He was serving a 20-year prison sentence when he died on August 23rd.
An Illinois Prisoner Review Board panel denied an early medical hardship release less than a month before he died.
The motion is standard when a defendant dies before exhausting all appeals.
The Massey Community Action Network issued a statement that the request to abate the conviction cannot change Grayson’s guilt, and they “continue to hold the family close as (they) do this work and as they brace for yet another barrage of pain, press, and public scrutiny they do not deserve.”
