STORY: "Timeline set for hearings in Barton McNeil case as he seeks new trial," by Edith Brady-Lunny, published by WGLT, on March 24, 2023. (Edith Brady-Lunny began her career as a reporter with The DeWitt County Observer, a weekly newspaper in Clinton. From 2007 to June 2019, Edith covered crime and legal issues for The Pantagraph, a daily newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois. She previously worked as a correspondent for The Pantagraph covering courts and local government issues in central Illinois.)
GIST: "Lawyers for Barton McNeil will present their case at a June 6 hearing, contending that evidence that McNeil's former girlfriend confessed to killing his daughter is relevant to his efforts to secure a new trial on murder charges.
Christina McNeil was 3 years old in June 1998 when her father discovered her lifeless body in a bedroom of his Bloomington apartment. McNeil was convicted of strangling the child in what authorities argued was an attempt by McNeil to cover up sexual abuse of the child.
McNeil has denied any involvement in the child’s death, and has urged Bloomington Police to investigate his former girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, a woman with a history of violence and child abuse, as a possible suspect.
In 2011, Nowlin was convicted of strangling her mother-in-law Linda Tyda after an argument. Evidence against Nowlin showed she planned the killing by luring Tyda to Bloomington on false pretenses.
Records on alternative suspect sought in Bart McNeil murder case
On Friday, Judge William Yoder set a timeline for court filings ahead of the June hearing on McNeil’s claim that Nowlin admitted to her ex-husband, Don Wang, that she killed the child.
McNeil’s lawyers with the Exoneration Project have filed affidavits from two women with information about the alleged confession.
In a separate court filing, the defense is seeking all materials related to the McNeil and Nowlin cases.
Any investigative materials that may relate to Nowlin as a possible suspect in Christina’s death are among the items sought by McNeil’s legal team.
The affidavits are the only potential new evidence approved for a hearing, according to a ruling last year by Yoder on McNeil’s petition for a new trial.
The Chicago legal team contends a jury should consider new questions surrounding scientific evidence used at McNeil’s bench trial. The fact that Nowlin’s hair and DNA were found on the child’s recently laundered bedding also should be heard by jurors at a new trial, the defense has argued.
After the hearing, McNeil supporter Tom Gorman called the police investigation “a railroading job from the beginning and here we are 20 years later.”
Gorman, of Peoria, supports the use of conviction integrity units used in several states to review murder convictions. He suggests Illinois’ governor and attorney general take action to establish the units in Illinois."
The entire story can be read at:
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.”
