SUB-HEADING: "Paroled in Starved Rock killings after nearly 60 years in prison, Chester Weger seeks a hearing to prove his innocence."
SUB-HEADING: "His lawyers want a judge to consider a DNA test they say points to another man and witnesses who say they were told a relative of one of the victims arranged for mobsters to kill the three west suburban women."
GIST: "Chester Weger, convicted in the 1960 Starved Rock killings of three west suburban women, asked a judge Friday to grant him a hearing to present new evidence to prove his innocence.
His lawyers want the judge to consider, among other things, a DNA test they say points to another man and witnesses who say they were told a relative of one of the victims arranged for mobsters to kill the women.
Weger, 83, was paroled for good behavior in prison after serving nearly six decades but wasn’t cleared of the killings at Starved Rock State Park about 90 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.
Last year, he failed to convince Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, appointed as a special prosecutor in the case, to vacate his sentence.
Weger was convicted of killing Lillian Oetting, who was found dead with friends Frances Murphy and Mildred Linquist after the three women from Riverside went on a hike in the park. Prosecutors said he acted alone.
Weger attorneys Andy Hale and Celeste Stack presented LaSalle County Judge Michael Jansz with a petition that they say supports their claim that Weger was framed, including:
- A DNA test that showed a hair found on a gloved hand of Murphy was from an unidentified man.
- Expert testimony that a log which prosecutors said was used in the killing didn’t come from the area. The women were likely killed by weapons such as a baseball bat and tire iron, one expert said.
- Interviews with people who said now-dead mobsters confided in them that they were involved in the killings. One talked about putting his and other killers’ bloody clothes in his car and later driving to another county to burn the evidence. An Illinois State Police report documented an interview with a telephone operator who said she heard a conversation shortly after the killings between two men discussing the disposal of bloody clothes.
Family members of the victims have told the Chicago Sun-Times they were outraged that Hale would present a theory that a relative of one of the women plotted to kill them.
Weger’s petition also said a now-deceased LaSalle County state’s attorney, along with two late sheriff’s deputies and a polygraph examiner who was a friend of one of the women’s husbands, shared a reward that would be the equivalent of $378,000 today. The husbands’ companies posted the reward, the petition said.
“The sheer hubris and impropriety of giving these men [money] is stunning,” Weger’s petition said, adding “state law prohibits prosecutors from receiving such awards.”
Hale said his client was railroaded, that he was provided an inadequate defense and that prosecutors didn’t even share their evidence with his lawyer before his trial.
“The state not only proceeded to trial against [Weger], the state also asked the jury to electrocute him,” his petition said. “This is truly unfathomable.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/2/18/23603147/starved-rock-killer-innocence-chester-weger-mobsters
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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