Judge rejects fingerprint testing in Slover case presented by Downstate Innocence Project

Six weeks after the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project presented its arguments for testing a latent fingerprint as a step toward overturning the murder convictions of Michael Slover, Jeannette Slover and Michael Slover Junior, a judge ruled that the print is not suitable for testing.

At the hearing in the courtroom of Assistant Circuit Court Judge Timothy Steadman on Feb. 1, project attorney Peter Wise presented a fingerprint expert who stated that a latent fingerprint found on a Bruce-Findlay Bridge railing over Lake Shelbyville was suitable for identification.

The Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, based at the University of Illinois at Springfield, seeks exoneration for wrongfully convicted downstate inmates and works to reform the criminal justice system.

The Innocence Project was featured in a March 17, 2010, article in the Decatur Herald & Review.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100317-DH&R-Innocence-Project.pdf