http://www.centralillinoisproud.com/story/d/story/mcneil-family-celebrates-small-victory-with-dna-ap/19118/fUA3m8L9wUauChcCp4HTew
BLOOMINGTON - A team, working to free a Bloomington man serving a long prison sentence for the alleged murder of his daughter is celebrating a small victory.
Earlier this month, the Illinois Innocence Project held a hearing in McLean County to bring new evidence into play for Barton McNeil. At the hearing, they asked for fingerprints found on the window screen, as well as the bed sheets and pillow cases to be tested for DNA evidence.
As we first told you Tuesday, the team learned that all except for a night shirt and underwear of McNeil’s daughter, Christina will be tested. The family agrees, it gives McNeil’s case for a new trial more legs.
"We think that any evidence that might have been found, DNA touch evidence, skin cells that were left on the night shirt or the underwear might have been extremely important and valuable,” said McNeil’s cousin Christopher Ross.
The defense team says new evidence against McNeil’s former girlfriend should be considered with the DNA evidence. The DNA testing should take about six to nine months to complete.
Convicted child killer maintains innocence, says new evidence could prove ex-girlfriend guilty
By WEEK Reporter
July 31, 2014 Updated Aug 1, 2014 at 10:49 AM CDT
MENARD, Ill. --June of 1999 Bloomington man Barton McNeil was convicted of killing his 3-year-old daughter Christina McNeil.
For years McNeil firmly believed his ex-girlfriend Misook Nowlin committed the crime, but his claim fell on deaf ears. It turns out, years later in 2012, his ex-girlfriend was convicted of killing her husband's mother.
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With a turn of events and additional DNA testing, McNeil's defense says it could prove his innocence.
FOR VIDEO
http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/Convicted-child-killer-maintains-innocence--says-surfacing-evidence-points-elsewhere-269488261.html
June 16 1998, Barton McNeil's life had changed forever. It was that day he found his 3-year-old daughter dead.
The original 911 transcripts reads:
911 operator: 911. What's your emergency?
McNeil: I need an ambulance! I need it fast! ...My daughter's dying I think!
The death of Christina would eventually condemn him at the Menard Correctional Center, a maximum security adult male prison. His conviction: two counts of first degree murder and 100 years in prison.
"If this is my fate, God forbid I live this long," said McNeil. "I'm sentenced to death by prison."
All for a crime he says he did not commit. It is a murder mystery that begins in Bloomington-Normal, after a break up argument with his former girlfriend, Misook Nowlin.
"She was stalking me at every turn. She would demand I spent time with her. She threatened to kill herself," said McNeil. "She had this maniacal jealousy of Christina, the primary object of my affection."
The morning after the breakup, McNeil was horrified by what he saw.
"I woke to find my daughter dead in her bedroom," explained McNeil.
She was suffocated -- bruises around her body.
The original Bloomington Police crime scene footage shows the window screen had been cut above the latches.
"I'm absolutely convinced of this... that her killer was already in the room for the purpose of killing my daughter," said McNeil.
However, the court said the evidence did not qualify as proof. Cobwebs and dust showed an undisturbed area. The decision reads, "There is no evidence that someone else entered the home at any time." McNeil's cousin, Chris Ross, has been studying the case for years.
"The prosecution was able to put in place this Motion in Limine that made it impossible for Bart to utter Misook's name in his defense," said Ross.
Any evidence regarding Misook had to be thrown out. The successful Motion in Limine disallowed McNeil a defense that another person committed the crime. Legal authorities say McNeil was, therefore, the only one who could have been in the apartment and was guilty by default. McNeil was losing hope.
"I'm staying here probably until I die," said McNeil.
Then, a turning point. In 2012, Misook Nowlin was convicted of killing her mother-in-law. Nowlin's husband had been wanting a divorce.
"It was an intricately planned crime," said Ross.
She lured her husband's mother, Wenlan Tyda, to a location where she strangled her to death.
"Had this murder not come to the attention of the public, Bart would be sitting in prison without hope and awaiting his eventual death," said Ross.
As of now, he is and will be. But Nowlin's conviction in the Tyda case also caught the attention of the University of Illinois Springfield's Innocence Project.
"They're extremely selective, they maybe take one in every hundred letters they receive," said Ross.
Two lawyers and a team of law students are fighting for McNeil's freedom. They have already petitioned for the approval of DNA testing of new evidence--blood stains, fingerprints and more. It is evidence lawyers believe could clear McNeil's name.
"Justice will only be served if my daughter's killers will be prosecuted for what they did," said McNeil.
Friday McNeil will have a hearing at the Mclean County Courthouse that will determine what evidence will be tested further.
Rally urges DNA testing in old cases
DAVID PROEBER, The Pantagraph
Several people rally outside the McLean County Law and Justice on Friday, calling for DNA testing for Jamie Snow and other people believed to be innocent.
11 hours ago • Edith Brady-Lunny eblunny@pantagraph.com
BLOOMINGTON — Advocates for defendants who have challenged their convictions rallied in front of the McLean County Law and Justice Center Friday, asking the state's attorney to move forward with DNA testing in two cases.
Supporters of Jamie Snow, convicted in 2001 of killing gas station attendant Billy Little, urged prosecutor Jason Chambers to approve ballistics testing on evidence. Tammy Alexander, organizer of a group to exonerate Snow, also argued that several witnesses proved unreliable.
Organizing the rally with Alexander was Andrew Dubois, a Bloomington man who served a dozen years in prison for a sexual assault he maintains he did not commit. He is working to clear his name.
"There's not one shred of evidence to back up the victim's account" of an assault," Alexander said of Dubois' case.
About 25 people attended the event, which included Chicago lawyer Alan Mills, who has handled high-profile class action lawsuits on prison issues. Also attending was James Kluppelberg, exonerated of arson after serving 25 years.
Mills urged DNA testing in the Snow and Barton McNeil cases. McNeil was convicted in 1998 of killing his daughter. He has maintained his innocence and argued his former girlfriend Misook Nowlin, convicted of murder in an unrelated case last year, is a solid suspect.
"The state's attorney is the only one with control over who goes into prison. The time is right, the movement is coming, so let's do it," Mills said of the testing.
In a statement, Chambers said he agreed to test blood and urine in the McNeil case but is not convinced that testing - aimed to link Nowlin - is necessary.
Nowlin was McNeil's girlfriend "and of course her DNA is going to be in his apartment," said Chambers.
In order for forensic testing to be done, results must produce new evidence that is relevant to the case, he said.
Chambers, who has been in office about 18 months, previously said he inherited the decisions made in their cases. But Chambers also said he does not believe his three predecessors "would have let someone remain in prison if presented with evidence of actual innocence. I would not, either."
There was no place to make comments on this article.
"The items were taken to the Bloomington Police evidence lab and placed in the fingerprint classification room. I (the person "I" is not identified in the page Bart sent with the PC) then began my examination of the computer. My objective was to discover the presence of anything that may be evidence in the case surrounding the death of Christine McNeil. Specifically, I was asked to detect the presence of any illegal pornographic materials which may include children.
First, I examined the hardware of the machine. The computer unit consisted of a Packard-Bell case, Pentium motherboard with Pentium 133 processor, and video card. This hardware was sujpplemented by a Conner 1275 megabyte hard drive, advance sound card , NEC 4x CD-ROM drive, and a 1.44 floppy drive.
I reassembled the system and analyzed the contents of the hard drive. The hard drive was nearly full with only about 50 megabytes free space. Most of the used space was filled with various computer software. I did find three movie files (*.avi) and 1,494 image files (2.wpg, 9-wrmf. 448-jpg, 503-bmp, 531-gif, 1-tif). One of the three movie files were pornographic in nature. Many of the image files were pornographic in nature. None of the movies or images contained any child pornography. A very large percentage of the pornography depicted females with male semen on their faces. I checked the hard drive for any hidden, renamed, or encrypted files, but found none. I did observe software and messages which indicated active use of the Internet, including e-mail, world wide web, and Internet relay chat. Barton McNeil uses the pseudonym "Bugs Bunny" on the Internet.
Next, I examined the zip disks recovered and again found nothing unusual. I examined the diskettes and found nothing. Finally, I examined the twelve CD-ROMs and found them to contain adult pornography including movies and still photographs. I did not observe anything that contained any person who may be under the age of eighteen years of age."
When mistakes are made, and innocent people are harmed, we as a society must move quickly to redress the wrongs.
Can you imagine what Mr. McNeil has been through? His crazy ex-girlfriend murders his daughter, and instead of having time to mourn her death, he is presented with a mountain of an obstacle in having to defend his innocence.
If this is true, and there seems to be significant evidence pointing in that direction...Wow....just wow. One can only begin to imagine what Mr. McNeil has been through.
Should anyone involved in this process read this comment, as a taxpayer, might I ask that this matter be expedited and moved forward at minimal cost? It would seem that if this is true, it is going to cost us a goodly sum. If so, then we should move it along as quickly as reasonably possible, in order to minimize costs to the taxpayer, and redress the wrong.
Let's get this moving!
Thank you for your time.