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CWC Client Alan Beaman Freed After 13 Years Recent Coverage: : Bloomington Pantagraph | Law Bulletin Read the Illinois Supreme Court Opinion
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Center on Wrongful Convictions
Northwestern University School of Law
357 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
Phone: (312) 503-2391
Fax: (312) 503-8977
Alan Beaman, a Center on Wrongful Convictions client for whom the Illinois Supreme Court on May 22, 2008, unanimously ordered a new trial, was released from prison Friday, June 27. Beaman was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend in August 1993 in Normal, Illinois — a crime he almost certainly could not have committed. Because of their prior relationship, Beaman immediately became a suspect and, despite strong evidence that he was in Rockford when the crime occurred, was convicted by a McLean County jury entirely on circumstantial evidence. The state's highest court threw out the conviction because the prosecutor violated Beaman's constitutional rights by withholding critical information regarding a viable alternative suspect. The high court characterized the State's case against Beaman as "tenuous" and found it probable that the jury would have acquitted had it known about the other suspect.
