2012 June 27th News Article – Illinois Innocence Project takes 1998 Murder Case

THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

Barton McNeil: Illinois Innocence Project takes 1998 murder case. New DNA testing could offer hope of exoneration. WJBC;

STORY: “Illinois Innocence Project takes 1998 murder case,” by reporter Ryan Denham, published by WJBC on May 4, 2012. (This case only recently came to my attention. HL);

GIST: “The Illinois Innocence Project is taking on a 1998 Bloomington homicide, hoping to exonerate convicted murderer Barton McNeil and expecting to get some help from new DNA evidence testing. TheIllinois Innocence Project is “in with both feet, in terms of giving this a thorough, thorough review,” said IIP Legal Director John Hanlon, who recently visited McNeil in prison. A “professional” referred the case to the IIP, but Hanlon declined to say who or describe their occupation……..McNeil was convicted of smothering his 3-year-old daughter, Christina. He’s now serving a life sentence in prison but has long maintained that his then-estranged girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, broke into his Bloomington apartment and killed Christina while he slept. But Nowlin, now known as Misook Wang, was arrested last fall and charged with staging an elaborate plot to lure her 70-year-old mother-in-law, Wenlan “Linda” Tyda, into traveling to the Twin Cities, where she was strangled. Tyda’s body was later dumped in a forest preserve near her home in the Joliet area. That connection was enough to prompt a second look at the 1998 case by police and the McLean County state’s attorney’s office. Detectives traveled to interview McNeil at Menard Correctional Center but later announced there were no new leads to pursue………Hanlon’s specialty is DNA cases. Ultimately, the goal in such cases is to file a new motion for DNA testing on certain evidence, Hanlon said. Generally speaking, DNA evidence exists in only about 10 percent of serious criminal felony cases, he said. “But we think it exists here,” he said. (If DNA testing is not possible, another IIP lawyer specializing in investigations would then likely get the case, Hanlon said.).”

The entire story can be found at:

http://wjbc.com/illinois-innocence-project-takes-1998-b-n-murder/

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

I am monitoring this case. 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: [email protected]

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

POSTED BY HAROLD LEVY AT WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

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HAROLD LEVY

My interest in forensic pathology began with my Toronto Star investigative reporting into once famed since disgraced former doctor Charles Smith. I began this Blog after retiring from the Star in 2006 in order to follow the aftermath into the independent Goudge inquiry into many of Smith’s cases. I have now begun to focus on cases involving flawed pathology and flawed pathologists no matter where they occur (the recent Amanda Knox prosecution in Italy, for example) and am fascinated by the interest in the Blog from people in countries throughout the world. In another development, my interest in “junk science” “pseudo-experts” and the miscarriages of justice they all too often cause has drawn me deeply into the on-going U.S. death penalty debate where so many troubling cases involve issues relating to DNA and other developments in the world of forensic science. For all of this I rely on my experience as a reporter at the Toronto Star, my work as a lawyer in Ontario’s criminal courts, and my abhorrence of injustice. Please send cases and developments which may be of interest to this Blog to [email protected]. Read on! Harold Levy.

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