An Illinois man has been exonerated 23 years after his death in the first posthumous exoneration in Illinois.
Grover Thompson was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1981 stabbing of Ida White in Mt. Vernon. Thompson died at Menard Correctional Center in 1996.
Serial killer and rapist Timothy Krajcir confessed to the stabbing in Mt. Vernon to then Carbondale Police investigator Paul Echols. But, the now retired Echols says at the time they did not have a name of the victim.
"We contacted Mt. Vernon P.D. They could not find a report. And we went back and interviewed him again on another date. He gave us more details. At that time he said he thought somebody had actually been arrested for it. And I mean, this is, this is not what you want to hear."
Echols says convicting Thompson was a great injustice.
"I teach for Shawnee College and SIU and I use this case to teach new police officers and future detectives, on, where things can go wrong. So, from something bad, I do try to bring something good out of it."
More than a decade ago, Krajcir confessed to the stabbing and murder of nine women from 1977 to 1982. Two murders occurred in Carbondale, one in Marion, five in Cape Girardeau and one in Pennsylvania.
The Illinois Innocence Project, which included students and faculty from SIU and UIS, worked on Thompson's case, initially filing the Executive Clemency Petition in 2011, which former Governor Rauner initially denied in 2015.
