Alan Beaman, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in McLean County more than 30 years ago, returned to the community on Tuesday to share his harrowing experience in hopes of stopping it from happening to anyone else.
Beaman appeared at Illinois State University's Braden Auditorium for a Q&A alongside his longtime lawyer, Jeffrey Urdangen, in a discussion moderated by retired WGLT criminal justice correspondent Edith Brady-Lunny. WGLT co-sponsored the event.
In 1993, Beaman was convicted of killing his 21-year-old former girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller, an ISU student. After serving more than 12 years in prison, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Beaman’s conviction and he was released in 2008. He had been sentenced to 50 years.
In 2014, Beaman filed a lawsuit against the Town of Normal and three retired police officers who investigated his case. Beaman’s lawyer argued police failed to consider other suspects in the case, and asserted exculpatory evidence regarding Beaman was withheld during his trial.
The lawsuit ended in April of this year when Normal agreed to pay a $5.4 million settlement. The town said the settlement would avoid a verdict potentially far exceeding its insurance coverage. In part, the town’s statement on the matter said Normal “admits no wrongdoing and fully stands behind the investigation and actions of its officers.”
At Tuesday's discussion, Beaman said he initially assumed the police would come to the conclusion he was innocent, and he was cooperative with the nine-month-long investigation.
“This was a ridiculous case, you’re going to win this, there’s no evidence. And that was really what I believed,” Beaman said. “I’m innocent, eventually everything will come out and we’ll be done with this.”
According to Beaman, investigators used a process of elimination to conclude he was the prime suspect, while failing to investigate many other leads. Beaman remembered being shocked when he was convicted because it was thought at the time to be a highly unlikely outcome.
Beaman was at home in Rockford at the time of Lockmiller's murder in Normal, an alibi backed up by his mother's testimony and by phone calls from his home. Beaman recalled even the officers driving him to jail expressed disbelief that he could have driven to Normal, committed the murder, and returned home in the window the prosecution proposed.
Beaman entered prison when he was 21, calling it “A shockingly brutal environment compared to anything I’d ever known.”
“The environment wasn’t there to help me survive. It was there to punish me, to dehumanize me and warehouse me,” he said.
“Surreal” was the word Beaman used to describe getting the news that his conviction was overturned 12 years later. But it didn’t compare, in that regard, to hearing the initial guilty verdict, he said.
Beaman’s lawyer, Urdangen, said the prosecution failed in its responsibilities, using dubious methodologies to sow doubt in Beaman’s alibi, and quickly building an assumption of his guilt. Previously in another relationship, Beaman had a “temper tantrum” that involved kicking in a door — information Urdangen said should not have been admitted.
Urdangen said multiple prosecutors who worked on Beaman's case went on to become judges, seeking as many convictions as possible to advance their careers — an attitude that continued after his initial trial.
“It’s difficult to undo a wrongful conviction, particularly when you have motivated prosecutors fighting you each step of the way,” said Urdangen, "looking to advance their careers at the expense of an innocent defendant.”
Since his release, Beaman has struggled with his mental health and receives care. He has worked with the Illinois Innocence Project and spoken to police cadet classes in the hope that what happened to him will not be repeated. To other exonerees, he said it's important to take things slow when they are released, and accept help from whatever support networks one can access.
Arising with some frequency late in the evening was the question of who actually killed Jennifer Lockmiller, and whether Normal Police would investigate anew.
Brady-Lunny said she contacted Normal Police when Beaman’s settlement was agreed upon. Brady-Lunny said she was told to wait until after the town council’s vote on the settlement, but then received no response.
