A group is trying to clear the name of Grover Thompson.
The Prisoner Review Board is considering whether to recommend a posthumous clemency for Thompson, who was convicted of killing Ida White in Mount Vernon in 1981.
Petitioners argued their case before the Prisoner Review Board Wednesday in Springfield.
Retired Carbondale police investigator Paul Echols connected another man to White's murder. Echols was investigating a cold case - that of SIU-Carbondale student Deborah Shepard - when he came across Timothy Krajcir. Eventually, Krajcir confessed to killing White. Echols says Thompson wasn't treated fairly during his trial.
Echols collaborated with several SIU-Carbondale law students and the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project to help get Thompson a clemency hearing.
The case was featured by WSIU Public Radio in an January 11, 2012, report.
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