Alan Beaman released after IL Supreme Court overturns conviction

[packy]

http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/21900419.html

Convicted murderer from Rockford is getting his first taste of freedom in more than 13 years. And Alan Beaman is speaking out for the first time since being out of prison.
Beaman's family posted bond and he is currently en-route back here to Rockford. This comes after the Illinios Supreme Court overturned his murder conviction last month, citing misleading evidence.
The case dealt with the 1993 murder of Illinois State University student Jennifer Lockmiller.
The McClean County state's attorney has decided to re-try Beaman. But in the meantime, Beaman will remain free on 250-thousand dollars bond

[packy]

Some background and more at link.

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x401621482/Lawyers-look-to-DNA-as-Beamans-chance-at-release

Beaman later discovered that Lockmiller was romantically involved with his roommate. Both Beaman's and the roommate's fingerprints were discovered on the clock radio whose cord was used to fatally choke Lockmiller. Another fingerprint on the clock never was identified.

No usable prints were found on the scissors used to stab Lockmiller several times in the chest. Beaman's roommate was cleared early on in the investigation.

In early August 1993, Beaman moved back to his parents' Rockford home to work a short-term job before starting his senior year at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Prosecutors argued that the day of the murder, Beaman drove from his bank in southeast Rockford to Bloomington-Normal, killed Lockmiller and returned to Rockford within a four-hour time frame.

Beaman has vehemently maintained his innocence. He says that at the time of the murder he was at home sleeping after working the night shift at his uncle's grocery store.

Both sides note that Beaman was convicted on circumstantial evidence - which is not unusual in a murder case with no eyewitnesses.

But the crime scene contained a number of loose hairs - on Lockmiller's body, clothing and underwear - that either were not analyzed for DNA or yielded inconclusive results. Attorneys Jeffrey Urdangen and Juliet Yackel want the hairs subjected to mitochondrial DNA testing, a cutting-edge technology.

"Despite a crime scene rich with forensic materials, there exists no physical or scientific evidence linking Mr. Beaman to this murder," Beaman's attorneys wrote in their motion for further forensic testing.

The evidence from the scene in Lockmiller's killing that did undergo DNA analysis was subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, an outdated method by today's standards, the attorneys claim.

Evidence from Lockmiller's apartment was analyzed at state labs in Morton and Springfield, where the material is still being held.

[packy]

No retrial!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-isukillingcorrect,0,757995.story

The McLean County state's attorney's office filed a motion Thursday to dismiss the murder charges against 36-year-old Alan Beaman.

Beaman was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 50 years in prison in the stabbing and strangling death of his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller. The Illinois Supreme Court threw the conviction out in May 2008, saying prosecutors violated his constitutional right to due process.

In a statement, prosecutors note that there's no statute of limitations on murder and that they'll continue investigating Lockmiller's death.