Bill Clutter
[1] His work on the Donaldson v. Central Illinois Public Service Company case led him to write the book Coal Tar: How Corrupt Politics and Corporate Greed Are Killing America's Children, which is the story of an epidemic of neuroblastoma in Taylorville, Illinois, caused by exposure to coal tar.
Following the decision, ward lines were drawn up and aldermen were voted into their seats based on residents living in their district.
[3][4] Donaldson v. Central Illinois Public Service Company In 1990, Clutter began investigating an epidemic of a rare childhood cancer called neuroblastoma in Taylorville, IL after his law firm was hired to represent four families whose children had been diagnosed.
The cases were eventually linked to a local plant that was owned and operated by the Central Illinois Public Service Company until 1932.
The land was later sold, but due to legislation enacted in 1980, CIPS was now responsible for the cleanup of coal tar that was stored in underground tanks.
[6] He co-wrote the Bloodworth Grant the awarded $687 thousand to establish a post-conviction program in Illinois to prove actual innocence.
[7] Clutter's work in criminal justice reform was credited when the governor signed the legislation to abolish the death penalty in Illinois.
He was wrongly convicted of a 1979 gas station robbery and the attempted murder of the attendant on the basis of a false identification in a lineup.
Buckley's trial ended in a hung jury and the charges were later dropped, but Cruz and Hernandez were sentenced to death.
Camm is a former Indiana state trooper who was wrongfully convicted of the murders of his wife and two children in the garage of their home in September, 2000.
Approximately five years after he was arrested, DNA evidence identified a convicted felon named Charles Boney as having been at the crime scene.
The organization referred the case to the Exoneration Project, based at the University of Chicago, which agreed to represent Lovelace pro bono.
[28] The investigation of Bill Clutter was featured on Crime Watch Daily, which triggered the recantation of Melissa DeBoer who was seven-years-old and left for dead when she witnessed the murder of her mother.
Rea told police that an intruder wearing a ski mask broke into their home and stabbed Joel.
The prosecution's case centered around the testimony of two bloodstain pattern spatter analysts who argued that a small stain of Joel's blood on Rea's clothing pointed to her as the assailant.
About a year after Rea's conviction, true crime author Diane Fanning published the book Through the Window about serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells.
An investigation by Clutter confirmed that the confession was genuine, convincing Texas Ranger John Allen to sign an affidavit in support of a petition for a new trial that was filed by the Center on Wrongful Convictions based at Northwestern Law School in Chicago.
The prosecution argued at trial that Vaughn killed his family; his defense team insisted that Kimberly was the shooter.
[36][37][38][39] David Camm's exoneration and Clutter's work on the case is featured on the new Oxygen TV show Framed By the Killer.
[40] Clutter's work on the Christopher Vaughn case was featured on a 12-part podcast by I Heart Radio called Murder in Illinois.
