The Honors Program welcomed guest speakers to a special class where students learned about the case of Barton McNeil and his controversial 1998 murder conviction
The guests included McNeil’s cousin Chris Ross, McNeil’s former co-worker Jeff Boyer and McNeil, a former Illinois State University student.
This conviction has since led to a lasting pursuit for justice as McNeil denies all charges.
McNeil was convicted of the murder of his daughter, Christina McNeil, in 1998 and received a life sentence. Since then, the sentence has been reduced to 100 years, and McNeil currently resides in the Graham Correctional Center.
However, McNeil has always maintained his innocence and has worked for over a decade to receive a new trial and use DNA evidence to prove his innocence.
The Honors Program class was led by professor Cristina Prestin. While Prestin teaches predominantly at Heartland Community College, she lectures for honors classes at ISU.
Prestin stressed the importance of this lecture for students, as many are completely unaware of the case, despite the incarceration being local.
“Students are usually dumbfounded that we have this local problem that’s been ongoing for decades right here in our county because everybody thinks this is something that happens, but it doesn’t happen here,” Prestin said.
Before the lecture, students received a packet of information about the McNeil case and were told to study through the documents to gain a better understanding of the case.
“Bart’s team came up with what they wanted the students to view ahead of time, and they were allowed to only take an hour of the students’ time. … So, the students looked through numerous different documents and videos to give them a little bit of background knowledge before they listened to the speakers,” Prestin said.
Students listened as Ross and Boyer discussed the case and had the opportunity to speak with McNeil over the phone and ask questions relating to the case itself.
McNeil, Boyer, Ross and others will be explaining the case in greater detail on March 19 at HCC for the “Wrongful Conviction of Barton McNeil” event. Tickets are free to the public, and more information is available at freebart.org.
Bowie Chappee is a news and features reporter for The Vidette. Chappee can be contacted at [email protected].
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