Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The man who founded the “Illinois Innocence Project” and now runs his own innocence agency says he wants Governor JB Pritzker to release a man imprisoned for the last 35 years but who he says was wrongfully convicted.

Bill Clutter is head of “Investigating Innocence” — and claims DNA evidence has proven Tom McMillen didn’t kill Melizza Koontz, 19, in rural Waverly back in 1989, as she was returning home from a job at a Springfield supermarket.

Problem is, Clutter says, six years ago when the Illinois Prisoner Review Board took up McMillen’s case, they recommended he stayed locked up.

“The chairman of that Prisoner Review Board, who is no longer on that board, had a conflict of interest,” said Clutter.  “He disclosed that he was acquainted with one of the witnesses who testified in opposition to our clemency petition, but didn’t recuse himself.”

Clutter wrote a letter to Pritzker in 2019 asking for McMillen’s release, but never heard back.  Clutter is concerned Pritzker is more concerned about political aspirations now, instead of doing the right thing.

“It’s no secret that Governor Pritzker wants to be President,” said Clutter.  “What I’m asking him to do is focus on Illinois, the people in prison here in Illinois who are wrongfully convicted and innocent.”

According to Clutter’s 2019 letter, McMillen’s name is misspelled in the official charging document.  A search of inmates at Illinois prisons, as a result, does not have a record available of a Thomas McMillen.  There is also not a record for him in the Sangamon County Court system, using the correct spelling of his name.

McMillen is urging Pritzker to release McMillen immediately to home confinement, so he can be home with his sister for Christmas.  Clutter also wants Attorney General Kwame Raoul to use his newly-created Conviction Integrity Unit to review McMillen’s claim of innocence.  Ultimately, Clutter would like to see McMillen be granted executive clemency.

We’ve reached out to the Governor’s office for comment and have not received a response.