Group seeks late Ill. man’s clemency in 1981 stabbing

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. — Relatives, investigators and advocates of a man who died in prison in a southern Illinois stabbing 30 years ago will make their case next week that he be cleared.

KFVS-TV reports that law students from Southern Illinois University and the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project will argue on Grover Thompson’s behalf Wednesday to the Illinois Prison Review Board.

They say Thompson was wrongly convicted in the 1981 stabbing of 72-year-old Ida White of Mount Vernon and that serial killer Timothy Krajcir actually killed White. Authorities say Krajcir has confessed.

Krajcir is serving 40-year sentences in two southern Illinois killings. He’s also been ordered imprisoned in five killings in Missouri and has pleaded guilty to charges related to killings in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Thompson died in 1996.