Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The man who founded the Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield and now heads his own agency trying to help the wrongfully convicted describes his work as both frustrating and beneficial.

Bill Clutter, who now lives in Kentucky, was back in Springfield last week advocating for a man who he says DNA evidence can prove was wrongfully convicted of a murder in 1989.  He now heads his own innocence project, called “Investigating Innocence.”  Clutter is a private investigator and attorney as well.

Clutter says something he advocated for almost ten years ago is finally becoming reality.

“It was a press conference I conducted in 2019 when I called on both the governor to…create a unit within the Illinois State Police that would investigate these claims of actual innocence, independent of other police agencies that got it wrong,” said Clutter.  “But I also called on the Illinois Attorney General to establish a statewide Conviction Integrity Unit.”

After receiving state backing and even grant money, the Conviction Integrity Unit started this year.

“I’ve had people within law enforcement that heroically went out on a limb to try to help free Rolando Cruz and Alejando Hernandez in the Nicarico case,” said Clutter.  “(They) did the right thing.”

As for the case of McMillen, Clutter says the Governor approved the recommendation of the Prisoner Review Board, but probably didn’t know there were conflicts of interest at the time.

CapitolCityNow reached out to the Governor’s Office seeking comment on the McMillen case, and never received a response.