Peter Rooney, a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, obtained a recantation from a key witness against Burrows, and the case was reopened.
Burrows' attorney, Kathleen Zellner, persuaded the real killer, Gayle Potter, to confess at the post-conviction hearing.
[3] In a plea bargain, Potter admitted forging the cheque and taking part in the crime, but implicated two others.
[4] Burrows appealed his conviction and death sentence, but both were upheld in 1992 by the Supreme Court of Illinois.
At a post-conviction hearing, Kathleen Zellner persuaded the perpetrator Gayle Potter to confess to the murder.