Exoneration Project Wins New Trial for Man Convicted of Murder
Students in the University of Chicago Law School’s Exoneration Project have helped a man convicted in a 1994 Chicago murder win a new trial based on DNA evidence that links the slaying to another man.
Kristen McKeon and Alex Orlowski, both ’12, began working on behalf of Harold Richardson, one of four men convicted in the rape and murder of 30-year-old Nina Glover, during a critical phase of the case. Both helped prepare the response to the State’s Motion to Dismiss and helped prepare the attorney who argued that motion in court.
McKeon then successfully argued the preliminary motion for bail for Richardson. He was released from prison last week on bail until prosecutors decide whether to set new trials.
“Kristen did an outstanding job and really put together the different skills she learned in Professor Alison Siegler’s federal criminal justice class, the clinic’s Intensive Trial Practice Workshop, and the skills she’s learned since joining the Project last spring,” said Tara Thompson, a staff attorney with the Exoneration Project. “This case is another example of high-level student work leading to a positive outcome for our client.”
Richardson and three other men were teenagers when they confessed to killing Glover in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. In May, DNA testing on evidence from Glover’s body was found to have come from a man who has since been convicted in the strangulation and murder of another woman. The man, Johnny Douglas, also was present when Glover’s body was recovered. No DNA evidence links Richardson or other convicted men to Glover’s death.