Court denies Ill. family’s request to test print

DECATUR — A fingerprint that three members of a Decatur family convicted of murder hoped might free them isn’t suitable for testing, a state appellate court has ruled.

Judges from the 4th District Appellate Court on Friday said they agreed with a lower court that determined in March 2010 that the print Michael Slover and Jeannette Slover, along with their son Michael Slover Jr., want tested was not complete enough to test. The appellate judges called the request a “shot in the dark.”

“If, as the court determined, the fingerprint was of insufficient quality to perform an adequately controlled (identification system) search, then ... the requested testing lacked the scientific potential to produce relevant evidence,” the ruling said, according to The (Decatur) Herald & Review (http://bit.ly/qUAp9v).

The Slovers are serving 60-year sentences for their 2002 convictions in the killing of Michael Slover Jr.’s ex-wife, Karyn Hearn Slover. She was shot and pieces of her body dumped in Lake Shelbyville in 1996.

The fingerprint was taken from a railing of a nearby bridge shortly after her body was found.

The Slovers have claimed that witness provided false testimony that helped convict them.

The lower court judge, Macon County Associate Judge Timothy Steadman, also earlier this month denied the Slovers’ request that the court issue subpoenas to compel several law enforcement agencies to investigate other suspects in the case.

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Information from: Herald & Review, http://www.herald-review.com