Illinois board hears argument for exoneration of man convicted of Krajcir's crime

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The Illinois Prisoner Review Board is tasked with deciding whether to recommend that the governor exonerate a dead man of a crime a serial killer committed after law students, investigators and a family member spoke on the dead man's behalf Wednesday.

Grover Thompson was convicted of attempted murder in 1981 and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He died in prison in 1996.

After Thompson's death, convicted serial murderer and rapist Timothy Krajcir told authorities he had committed the crime. Krajcir is more than four years into an 80-year sentence for murders in Williamson and Jackson counties in Illinois. In addition to being sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping of Joyce Tharp, whom he confessed to killing in Carbondale, Ill., Krajcir received a 20-year sentence for a burglary charge.

In 2008 he confessed to five murders in Cape Girardeau in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

On Wednesday, the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, students from Southern Illinois University's law school, investigators and Thompson's nephew went to Springfield and lobbied the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to send Gov. Pat Quinn a recommendation to exonerate Thompson, project director Larry Golden said.

Golden said the process is confidential and he will not know if or when the board will decide to send a recommendation.

Thompson was a transient black man who was wrongly convicted, according to the Innocence Project. At the review board hearing, law enforcement officers who helped prove Thompson's innocence were to testify on his behalf in an effort to get his record wiped clean.

The Downstate Illinois Innocence Project evaluates and investigates cases for credible claims of an Illinois inmate's actual innocence and sometimes provides legal representation for inmates. The project also encourages reforms toward preventing the conviction of innocent people in the future and educates the public about wrongful convictions.

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