Southern Illinois judge tosses man’s 24-year-old murder conviction

SALEM — A judge in southern Illinois has thrown out the murder conviction of a man convicted 24 years ago in a fatal stabbing during a dice game.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that Marion County Associate Judge Marc Kelly vacated Anthony Murray’s conviction in Seneca Jones’ death after finding that Murray got ineffective counsel during his second murder trial.

Murray, formerly of Centralia, has been serving a 45-year sentence.

Murray’s initial conviction was thrown out because one of the jurors failed to reveal he knew the victim and had attended his funeral.

The order for Murray to get a new trial came after students at the University of Illinois in Springfield worked with a state group that investigates cases of prison inmates believed to be wrongly convicted.