The fate of two Twin City men claiming they were wrongfully convicted of murder now lies in the hands of the Illinois appellate court.
Appellate justices heard back-to-back arguments Tuesday at Illinois State University on behalf of Jamie Snow and Barton McNeil, two men convicted of unrelated murders in Bloomington in the 1990s.
McNeil and Snow were denied their requests seeking new trials by the circuit court. Tuesday’s oral arguments at ISU were an opportunity to try and overturn those rulings. Neither McNeil or Snow were present.
A ‘gag order’ prevented McNeil’s theory of the crime
McNeil is serving a 100-year sentence for the 1998 suffocation death of his 3-year-old daughter, Christina. McNeil has always said his ex-girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, broke into his Bloomington apartment and suffocated his daughter to death. His attorneys have asked to introduce evidence that Nowlin’s DNA was found in Christina’s bed the night she was killed…