John Grisham, others seek DNA-test for convicted double-murder

Several former U.S. attorneys and a best-selling crime novelist is asking Gov. Rod Blagojevich to order DNA testing in the case of a Peoria man who served 30 years in prison for a crime they believe he didn't commit.

Johnnie Lee Savory was just 15 when he was convicted of double murder, and faced a judge for sentencing. He was charged in 1977 with the stabbing deaths of his teenage friend and the boy's older sister. He won a new trial after an appeals court said his confession had been coerced.

He walked out of prison in December 2006, still proclaiming his innocence.

Led by five former U.S. attorneys, best-selling crime novelist John Grisham and the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions, the list of supporters represents years of effort on the part of the accused man to secure the DNA testing he says will clear his name.

Savory's supporters concede a governor's mandate to test DNA may be their last and best chance to clear Savory's name. And for Savory that is what his fight is all about.

"My life has a void, and that void is that I have to prove my innocence," Savory said Thursday. "Not beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond all shadow of a doubt."

Savory has tried for the last decade to secure an order for testing through the courts, taking his case all the way to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, but has repeatedly come up short. The current appeal to Blagojevich asks for the release of evidence to be tested at no cost to the state.

Savory's supporters are focusing on evidence presented during the trial, including a bloody pair of pants seized from Savory's home and head hairs found in the victims' hands.

Savory's lawyers say testing those pieces of evidence, as well as samples collected from other suspects at the time, will prove Savory's innocence.

But prosecutors in Peoria dismiss Savory's high-profile appeal as the desperate antics of a guilty man.

"Even if we were to order that the things they want tested, and even if they came back to belong to someone other than their client, it still isn't something that would cause a different result in this case," said Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons.