DuPage judge: Amor doesn't qualify for certificate of innocence

A DuPage County judge ruled Monday that William Amor should not receive a certificate of innocence from the state that could be redeemed under the wrongfully convicted compensation statute — even though Amor was exonerated in his second trial on charges he set a 1995 Naperville fire that killed his mother-in-law.

Judge Robert Miller said Amor doesn't qualify because he could not prove he did not, through his own conduct, cause or bring about his conviction when he confessed to starting the fire with a cigarette and vodka-soaked newspaper.

Amor maintained his confession was coerced and experts testified at his second trial that the way he confessed to starting the fire was impossible. But Miller found the confession was voluntary.

“The confession was not the product of physical abuse or interrogation tactics,” Miller said. “I can't find anything about the confession that would not make it voluntary.”

Amor's attorney, Doug Johnson, argued that the confession is “not worth the paper it's printed on” because it “sets forth a narrative that did not happen.”

“There simply is no evidence that this man set this fire,” Johnson said. “There is overwhelming evidence that no crimes were committed here.”

According to the formula in the compensation statute, Amor, 63, could qualify to receive the maximum compensation of roughly $220,000.

Assistant State's Attorney Thomas Minser, however, said the case for a certificate of innocence begins and ends with the confession.

“The evidence shows the defendant is not innocent,” Minser said. “He is a self-professed murderer.”

Outside of court, another of Amor's attorneys, Kathleen Zellner, said Miller's ruling was “disappointing but not unexpected” and she will appeal it to the Second District Appellate Court.

“You've got to get the case out of the element where you were wrongfully convicted in the first place,” Zellner said. “We've got to see if the appellate court will consider the new scientific evidence and find the confession to be false.”

In February 2018, Judge Liam Brennan found Amor not guilty of all arson and murder charges in the 1995 death of Amor's mother-in-law, Marianne Miceli, in a fire at a condo on the 1800 block of Bailey Road in Naperville.

The ruling came nearly three weeks after Amor's bench trial concluded and roughly 10 months after Brennan vacated Amor's 1997 arson and murder convictions related to the case.

Prosecutors maintained throughout the trial that Amor ignited the fatal fire to collect insurance money so he and his bride, Tina Micelli, could start a new life together.

Zellner is also representing Amor in a federal civil rights lawsuit he filed last May claiming several Naperville police officers “reached an agreement among themselves” to frame him for the murder. She said that case is proceeding.

The DuPage case is next scheduled for June 3 for the filing of the appeal notice.